Time what?
by Sprklz03
Summary: Crista Fraiser finds herself thrown back in time to 1944. Only to find herself having stumbled into one of Captain America's HYDRA mission. Can she find a way back to 2013? And will Captain America know what to do with a dame claiming to be from the future.*** This is technically a Crossover with Outlander, just with none of the characters.
1. Prologue

D.C. was weird. The hustle and bustle of a city never bothered me I mean I lived in New York. But something was off about the city; maybe it was all the sqeez ball politicians. I heard the door slide open behind me and I turned, coming face to face with a rather handsome black man. He was frowning down at me, his arms folded over what I could tell was a rather well defined chest; for being a normal human that is.

"I'm Crista Frasier." I said, tucking my curly brown hair behind my ear. The man glanced around almost casually but I knew he was looking for people that shouldn't be watching or listening, judging on the request for secrecy. He moved aside and made a jerking motion to invite me in.

The apartment was nice. It was clean, well lit by windows and the sliding door that he was closing behind me, and furnished with an array of different things from comfy looking couches to hard bar stools. The man came up next to me, arms once again crossed over his chest.

"Is he here?" I asked, awkwardly glancing around. He had left a rather cryptic voice mail on my cell giving me nothing but an address and a plea for my presence, along with the secrecy request. The man nodded, released a breath and relaxed slightly.

"They both are." He said.

"Both?" He couldn't possibly mean…

"Who is this?" My attention was drawn to the woman in the door way. I had seen on her TV during the battle of New York. She was smaller than I had anticipated; being only about five foot three, but Black Widow's presence was not something to be ignored. I had no idea she would be here. Apparently I was more terrified of her than I would have liked to admit, especially to myself, because I didn't answer the question; I simply stared at her. That was when the light from the hallway disappeared. Well, was blocked really by the largest muscled man I had ever known. His shoulders, protruding ever so enticingly from his white wife beater, took up the whole space of the door way. His hair was still perfect; it always was and I was beginning to think that it always would be. The weirdest part about seeing him here was the fact that he was wearing jeans.

After my eyes had scanned his whole body, he was standing which was good and didn't seem to be bleeding, they locked with his blue ones.

"Crista." He said and suddenly I was across the room with my arms thrown around his neck. Steve's arms clung to me like I was some sort of life line. My eyes had closed as I pressed my face into his shoulder and took a deep breath; he still smelled like Steve. I pulled back leaving my hands linked around his neck and looked up at him.

"What the fuck is going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

The night was freezing and quiet. They could see their breath coming out in short gasps as his men hid in the shadows of the trees. The snow muffled the sounds of their footsteps and breath and their fidgeting. He rolled his eyes. His men were acting as if they had never stormed a HYDRA base before this one, and sometimes he wished they act like they knew what they were doing... because they did.

Steve glanced over, taking a head count of the Howling Commandos who were supposed to be there. Falsworth was on a scouting mission for the moment so his count was short. He locked eyes with Bucky a few trees away. The man smiled and nodded at Steve as they waited for the signal from Falsworth. The Englishman was taking forever. The base itself was only about a half a mile from their current position and according to their intel was expecting a convoy of weapons deliveries. That was what they were waiting for. If they could take out the trucks, which they could, they could use them to get into the base and then use the weapons to take it down. This base wasn't particularly difficult. It was more like a shack in the middle of the black forest. What unnerved him was the fact that they were so deep in Nazi territory in the middle of winter. The Black Forest was an odd place to have a HYDRA base but he didn't care, so long as it was taken down.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of heavy footstep; three sets. Much too heavy to be Falsworth. And a fourth set, lighter and stumbling. He put up a signal to his men to hold position as some of them had started shifting to try and see what was going on. He heard a muffled question in German but his German wasn't all that great so he couldn't figure out what was being said.

"What?" He froze for a split second before glancing at his men, all of whom had frozen as well. That was a female, and an American. The dame, whomever she was sounded out of breath. Something happened someone hit the ground and three men laughed. Steve wished that he could peek around the tree to see what was going on. That guttural muffled German sound again.

"Yeah sure. Do you speak English?" The woman asked. "Uh.. sprechenzi um… English?" The men laughed again. "So I take it no."

Steve's heart was pounding in his chest. Why was there an American civilian woman in the middle of his active war zone? Bucky was trying to get his attention. All the Commandos were looking at him waiting for his call. He slightly shook his head. Whoever this dame was, he didn't want her to get thrown into the middle of a fight if he could help it. Yet, he also couldn't wait much longer to overtake the HYDRA agents meeting the convoy.

"Hey." Steve perked up at the tone. "Stop it." And then she was screaming. A scream that hit him in the gut like a ton of bricks. He nodded once to his men, switched his shield to his right hand and moved out of his hiding place.

Steve scanned the scene briefly before taking action. Three HYRDA agents in full uniform, two were standing and one woman who legs were very, _very_, visible with the third agent was on the snow covered ground. Steve didn't know if he had ever seen that much leg. But what caught his attention was the HYDRA agent that was on top of her, pinning her arms above her head and laughing as she screamed. His shield flew from his hand before he remembered sending it. The vibranium collided with the HYDRA agents head with a sickening crunch. Bucky was taking out the one closest to him as Steve turned on the third guy. Dum Dum dropped to his knees and shoved the agent off this dame, before scooping her into his arms and dashing a retreat behind the trees.

The agent he was up against was either really brave, or really stupid. The man had dropped his gun and was attempting to fight Steve in hand to hand combat. As soon as Bucky grounded the agent he was fighting with, Steve delivered a quick right hook to the agents jaw. He didn't know if he knocked the man unconscious or killed him, but just to make sure he and Bucky both fired two shots into their respective downed foes. Bucky knelt next to the one who had taken the shield to the head and checked for a pulse. He shook his head and the retrieved Steve's shield.

"Who do you think she is?" Buck asked as they made their way in the direction that Dum Dum had disappeared to.

"No idea." Steve said. "But I'm sure as hell going to find out."

My name is Crista, I was born in 1986 in New York, USA. I graduated high school in 2004, spent three years working my ass off at NYU to get a teaching degree in history and started working as a high school history teacher in 2007. I had always been good with directions and having a pretty decent idea of where I was at all times.

So when I tell you that I was stumbling disoriented and confused through a snowy forest that was not snowy an hour ago, I hope it will come across just how urgent it was.

I was fairly certain that I was still in the Black Forest. My family and I had left Basel earlier that morning to go on a hike through Germany's most famous woods. It was also April, and there was no snow. My teeth chattered as my foot fell through a particularly deep bank, freezing my foot through my shoe, and my sock and half way up my shin. I mean honestly, would I have worn shorts on a hike in the middle of winter? Did people even hike in the middle of winter? No one sane anyone.

My students were going to start learning about the Holocaust next week, so the chance to travel through Germany was something I had been looking forward to. I wanted to get some pictures of the concentration camps and the HYDRA bases so that they could really get a feel for the information. That was why the hike through the forest had so enticed me; we would be passing right by one of the many HYDRA bases that had been destroyed. About a mile outside of the base I had gotten really dizzy. Not wanting the rest of the group to slow down I told them to go ahead along the trail and I would catch up to them.

I had sat on the trail for about three minutes sipping water and trying to get the world to stop spinning when I heard the low humming. Like that of a distant engine. I remember looking around, and trying to get up in case there was a motorcycle or something coming down the path. As I stood, my life time of klutzy reared its ugly head and my foot got caught under a tree root. Like most Klutzes, I had reached out to steady myself against the nearest solid object, which happened to be the largest tree I had ever seen. And then I blacked out.

I'm not sure how to describe what I experienced. It was like falling, and spinning, and climbing, and swimming and flying all at once. All I know is I was exhausted and my mind couldn't focus. I had stumbled in the direction of where I thought the group was, only to trip on another tree root or something. The scrapes on my hands stung as I got up and looked around. The trail was gone, and there was snow everywhere.

I was currently lying behind a tree, having been attacked by three German men in crazy get ups. The man who had rolled the dead weight of German off me and carried me out of what I assumed turned into a fight had his hand on my shoulder.

"Just breathe sweetheart." He said. "You'll be ok." He said. His short beard was the same red color of the hair poking out from underneath his hat. His _bowler_ hat.

"Nice hat." I said mostly in teasing but I was still really confused as to what was happening. And my back was cold. There was snow everywhere, did I mention that? The man smiled at my comment and nodded. Then gun shots rang out and like any normal person I screamed. I grew up in New York, gun shots were a normal occurrence but I had never witnessed one so close.

"We aren't the ones who are going hurt you honey." He said. I could tell he was from somewhere on the East Coast of America; well at least he was American and not trying to rape me. Two more men came around the tree and Bowler Hat looked up. "Cap." He said. I followed his gaze to a man who seemed to tower over everything. Then again, that could just be the angle at which I was lying. My eyes scanned his form, landing on the iconic shield strapped to his left forearm.

"You have got to be kidding me." I said. All three men glanced at each other as the tall one knelt down next to me.

"Are you all right ma'am?" He asked. All I could do was start laughing.

I was never one to dream about celebrities. I never fawned over Jason Priestly, I never had posters of N*Sync up in my room. New York was crawling with celebrities and celebrity wanna-be's and all they really did was annoy me. So why in the world was I dreaming about Captain America? Ok sure, he was gorgeous and all that. And he could hand an alien its ass pretty well if the footage from the Battle of New York was accurate, but killing aliens had never been particularly hot to me. I struggled into a sitting position, noticing the cold transfer from my back to my butt.

"Steve." I didn't realize that I was still laughing until Steve looked over to the guy on his right. The man nodded down at my legs, which drew Steve's attention to them too. Now I didn't particularly think that Captain America was going to rape me but that German guy had just tried so I was a little jumpy, and the motion stopped my hysterical laughing. I pulled my knees into my chest, breath hitching at the dull ache in them. Wait what? You didn't ache in dreams. My head snapped over to Captain America.

Slowly, so I didn't get shot, I shifted onto my knees in front of him. The snow was freezing, and I think there was a rock digging into my skin but none of that mattered. Steve's attention came back to my face as I reached up and brushed my fingers along his jaw. Good god he was warm. How did someone stay so warm in this freezing weather? But he was warm, and real and had a slight five o'clock shadow. He stayed still, almost like a deer in headlights as I reached under his chin and unclasped his helmet strap.

The helmet was lighter than I anticipated it to be as I slowly pulled it off his head and let it fall to the snow covered ground. Like I said, I was a history teacher. I had a degree in history from NYU. I knew what Captain Steven Grant Rogers looked like. And I knew what his uniform from World War II looked like. And I knew that I was near a HYDRA base. All of this information collided with itself in my brain as Steve looked at me. There was no denying Captain America was in front of me. My head slowly turned to look vaguely in the direction of the three German men, presumably HYDRA agents; that would account for the crazy get ups. Then I turned and took in the uniforms of the man who had carried me away, and the other man who had walked around the tree with Captain Rogers. They were authentic World War two.

"Oh my god, you're Steve Rogers." I whispered. Instead of the humble smile I heard he had when someone recognized him in New York, this Steve Rogers was confused for a second, then angry for a second, then confused again. I looked over to his friend, not Bowler hat the other one, and the face clicked. "And Bucky Barnes." Was whispered too. Suddenly, the German great outdoors didn't have enough oxygen. My breathing got fast and frantic, and the ache from the rock became too much for this to be a dream. "Holy shit." And then I blacked out again.


	3. Chapter 3

I remembered being jostled a bit, something hard was under my head and men were talking. More men than I could place. I might have opened my eyes, seen a rather nice neck but I can't recall that with 100 percent certainty.

I woke up completely confused for the second time. Again I had no idea where I was. Whatever I was laying on was soft and warm, but the air around me was cold. I looked to the ceiling, well cloth, above me. It was army green. I took in my surroundings trying to place myself. I was lying on a cot in a sleeping bag. On the floor next to the cot was a stack of papers being pinned down by a sketch book and there was a duffle bag in the corner. The beaten up label read S.G.R, Cpt. That was when it came slamming back to me.

Steven Grant Rogers had thrown his shield very close to my head if I remember correctly. Granted it hit its target as I am sure it always did, but I was never one to enjoy flying metal by my face. Germany. I was in Germany. And it was snowing. And Captain Rogers and his Howling Commandos had saved me from being raped. I shifted at the thought, feeling the warm down filled fabric around me. I remembered blacking out now. The face of the only dead Howling Commando swam in front of my face. Bucky Barnes went down in history as almost as big of a Hero as his best friend. But he was there. Standing in the snow five feet from me; twenty six years old and not dead by any means. I mean, I had never seen a dead guy look that cute.

"What was I supposed to do Buck? Leave her there?" My attention was pulled to the voice outside the flaps of what I assumed to be Steven Grant Roger's tent.

"I know you wouldn't leave her there. I was only suggesting one of us bring her back while the rest took down that convoy." I had a sinking feeling that I had somehow screwed up big time. Did I really go back in time? And by feeling guilty was I actually admitting it somehow?

For that was the only logical explanation. My body ached like I had been run over by a truck, I was freezing, and Bucky Barnes was alive and presumably standing outside having a conversation with his best friend like they had many times before. Something happened when I touched that tree and instead of Germany, in late April in 2013, I was suddenly in Germany in the middle of winter sometime during the Second World War. I let out a breath, which apparently stopped the conversation outside because the flap opened and I was blinding by white light.

Two men came in; one with a large bulk that he navigated with an easy gait. The other smaller, but no less graceful. I blinked a few times until my pupils dilated again and the images of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes came into focus. I sat up, or tried to. The sleeping bag was strangling me so I unzipped it and flopped it open down the side of the cot. Steve breathed in slightly and obviously averted his eyes. Bucky simply looked away. A panic set in at their reaction and I glanced down to make sure I still had clothes on. The adrenaline spike caused a shooting pain through my chest as I realized my shorts were still firmly in place. Why were they acting like I was sitting here naked? Steve cleared his throat before looking back at me.

"Sorry. We didn't find your clothes." He leaned over and set his shield down so that it was propped against the foot of the cot. What clothes was he talking about? I glanced down again to see my denim shorts right where they were before.

"What?" I asked. Before he could answer there was a ruckus outside. Men's voices shouting and the sound of an engine. Bucky stuck his head out of the tent flaps briefly before looking at Steve.

"Camera crew." He said before walking out of the tent. Steve sighed a frustrated sigh and I looked back at him.

"Perfect." He muttered before looking back up at me. "Who are you?" He said, a tone lacing into his voice that declared he was going to get his answers.

"Crista." I said shifting slightly under his gaze. The back of my shirt was wet. I reached to my waist to try and pluck it away from my skin. While I am sure the air was colder outside, it was none too warm in the tent and it caused me to shiver. I looked behind me to where I had been laying to see a slightly damp spot in the sleeping bag.

"Like I said, we couldn't find your other clothes." My attention pulled back to the Captain as he reached under the cot and removed a small stool. He pulled it over and sat himself down next to me.

"What other clothes?" I asked, still completely confused as to why he thought I had clothes missing. Only to be met with a rather confused look from him.

"Your skirt." He clarified.

"Why would have a skirt?" I asked. You can't hike in a skirt that is just… "Women didn't wear shorts in the 40's did they?" I asked out loud to myself. My eyes fell closed and I took a deep breath in.

"Those men, they didn't remove a skirt? Or a jacket?" When I opened my eyes, Captain Rogers was looking me over. Now I am not considered skinny. Or fat. I work really hard to keep my body in shape and it is toned, but that didn't make being stared at by the most perfect specimen in human history any less awkward.

"No." I said crossing my arms over my chest. "You got there before they…" The words caught in my throat. I had lived in New York my entire life and I had never been attacked that way before. I hadn't expected it to cause such a reaction. Then again, it wasn't considered a crime for the heck of it.

"Good." He said his tone slightly angry. Captain America might not be known for his antics in the bedroom, but he was known for his respect of the softer sex. "But um…" My eyes were pulled back to his face as the most fascinating thing I could probably think of was occurring. Steve's cheek were tinged slightly pink, and getting darker by the second.

"Are you blushing?" I asked before my brain could stop me. All that did was make the Captain blush more. "Why are you…"

"Shh." He said. I hadn't realized that my volume had gotten so loud. He obviously glanced at the tent flaps to see if anyone would be coming in.

"Why are you blushing?" I asked at a lower decibel. Steve shifted uncomfortably on his stool, rubbing a hand down his face, across the back of his neck, through his hair.

"You… there is…" His eyes finally settled on the exposed skin of my legs before his cheeks flushed an even darker pink.

"Too much skin?" I asked, fumbling for the sleeping bag that I had tossed aside.

"Just more than I am used to seeing." He said.

"My shorts are too short." I said, pulling the thick sleeping bag across my knees. They really weren't that short actually. They hit me mid-thigh but in a time when women were just breaking into wearing pants, and for that matter only when they were working in a factory, I could understand where they would seem short. How exactly he felt when he came out of the ice must have been a bigger shock than anyone knew.

"No one here is going to hurt you ma'am." He said. I looked back over to him to see him sitting just a little bit straighter.

"I'm not a ma'am." Was the only thing I could think to say.

"Crista." He said, relaxing a bit. His eyes traveled to the flaps of his tent before coming back to me. "Who are you? And why are you dressed like that, in the middle of November during a war?" I sighed and looked down to the standard issue green army sleeping bag draped over my lap. Could I explain this? It wasn't like I had gone so far back that people would think me a witch, but they would probably have me institutionalized.

"Would you believe vacationing with my family?" That was true. There was no lie there.

"No." He said. Right. Big war going on, angry evil Nazi Germany; Americans wouldn't vacation here. I looked over to him, his blue eyes clear and focused. He was going to get answers. I could see it in his face. I could also see that he was trust worthy. That and the fact that I basically knew everything there was to know about him as a history teacher made me take the plunge.

"Ok listen. I am going to tell you the truth, but you can't freak out on me." His eyes narrowed but he nodded. I took a deep breath to steady myself and then looked straight into his eyes. "I think I traveled back in time." I said quietly. At that admission, he leaned back arms straight and hands placed on his knees. However the look he was giving me was pretty obvious.  
"I'm not crazy. I was born in 1986. I am a history teacher so I know the Howling Commandos fought in World War II. Couple that with the fact that this morning I was hiking in April and there was no snow on the ground, I can't seem to come to another conclusion." He slowly leaned forward again looking at me like I had sprouted another head. "I'm not crazy."

Steve stared at the strange women in his bed. She was telling him that she traveled back in time. That she was from 2013. That was 69 years away. She licked her bottom lip, pulling it into her mouth as she looked down at her lap, where her very visible legs were covered by his sleeping bag. He knew the film crew had just showed up to film their next mission planning, which was going to be re-planning the mission that was just botched, but he needed to figure out who she was first.

This dame, with curly brown hair and turquois eyes (her eyes were actually turquois) in her short pants and tighter than he was used to white t-shirt had apparently fallen back in time and stumbled directly into his top secret mission. She sighed slightly and looked back up at him with those unnerving eyes of hers.

"Is there something that you can tell me to prove this theory?" He asked, surprised at how calm and diplomatic he sounded.

"What year is it?" She asked sitting up more straight and focusing on him.

"1944. November 1944." He watched her face as her eyes started darting back and forth, almost as if she were reading something that only she could see. Suddenly, her head snapped up, her expression almost devastated. She twisted, looked out the flaps of his tent and then back at him.

"1944." She said quietly. He could tell she was debating something with herself and he sat patiently waiting for whichever side of her won the argument. "The war is going to end next year. In May." She said lamely. That caught his attention. Call it the longing for this war to be over, but he found himself asking more about this last statement.

"Who wins?" He would give anything for this war to be over. Anything to be able to ask Peggy on a real date, take her dancing, watch her relax. Anything to go to a Dodgers game with Bucky again.

"We do." She said absently. Steve raised his eyebrows at her, assuming that she meant his side. "The Allied Forces." She amended. "They storm into Germany on May 8th and capture… never mind." Steve waited patiently for her to continue. May was only six months away. It was almost over. What did he have to capture. "I guess I can't prove it." She said suddenly.

"What? Why?" She looked back to him, her eyes darting back and forth between his and there was an extreme sadness there. A sadness he didn't understand.

"I shouldn't tell you too much about your own future. It might complicate things. I probably already screwed up the time line by botching what mission you were on." While he was frustrated at the sudden lack of information, she looked too sad for him to be truly angry.

"It's not a big one. I don't think that weapons convoy idea would have worked anyway." He said. He wasn't even trying to appease her. It was a long shot that they were going to be able to overpower three trucks with six men.

"The weapons convoy. No that didn't work." She said quietly. He looked at her with a question clearly in his eyes. "Some problem happened and the mission didn't go through."

"You happened." He said. She nodded slowly but then shook her head.

"There is no record of why the mission failed. Captain America never found a woman in the woods."

"But we did." He supplied, and suddenly he was leaning forward closer to her. She looked up at him. "Do we fix it?" He asked. He couldn't help himself, the faster he got this base destroyed the faster they could get out of Nazi territory and move on to the last base. Where ever that base might be.

"Yeah. You succeed. I think it was from a rear attack or something like that." Steve felt his face relax and light up. That was the plan that Dum Dum had had before they were informed of the weapons convoy. Attack from the rear of the base, where it was surrounded by thick woods, no gate and no guards.

"How fast can this happen?" He asked, scooting his little stool closer to his cot. Her eyes darted back to whatever they were reading before locking with his again. A small smirk pulled at her lips.

"Three days." He had to fight himself from getting too excited. This still didn't prove that this woman was from the future and taking her word could have potentially life threatening consequences. Suddenly crashing down from whatever thought she was on she pulled back slightly, alerting him to the fact that he had gotten too close to her.

"Sorry." He got up and started to pace by the foot of his bed. "But this doesn't prove that you are from the future." Her eyes watched him for a minute, shifting to accommodate her neck. He watched as her hips shifted slightly and a grin spread across her face. She then reached behind her and removed something. It was a small box looking thing. It was about a quarter of an inch thick, and a three by five rectangle. She held it up to him with a triumphant look on her face. He took it from her handle gently, keeping his strength in check and examined the small box. It was white, with one round button in the center at the bottom and a smaller black rectangle in the center. He was shifting it in his hand when his thumb hit the black rectangle in the middle and it lit up with a rectangle chart of numbers. Steve looked up at her, his eyebrows raised.

"It's a phone. A phone that you can take anywhere." She said, getting up and moving next to him. She grabbed the phone and swiped her thumb in an odd configuration and the screen changed. "Oh crap." She said taking it back and using her thumb to make the screen move.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"I don't have service. Duh. The first communication satellite won't be launch for eleven years."

"A what?" He asked.

"A satellite." She looked up at before obtaining her thinking face again. "Never mind. I will explain it later." He heard the footsteps coming up to his tent but he wanted more information on this satellite thing. But then, did that mean that he actually believed her story? That she was in fact from the future? Before he could say anything Bucky poked his head through the flaps.

"Hey Steve." Steve looked over in time to see Bucky stepping fully into the tent. He didn't miss how his best friend's eyes scanned over Crista's visible skin. Crista didn't seem to notice as she was doing something on her cell phone.

"Bucky?" Bucky's eyes snapped back over, smirked and gave him a one shouldered shrug.

"Dum Dum is back, and sending that man was a dumb idea. You should have sent me. I at least understand women's sizes." Bucky said. That comment caught Crista's attention as she glanced at Bucky and then up at Steve.

"I sent one of my guys to get you some clothes." He said, feeling a heat pooling in his cheeks.

"Dum Dum has been in the army for a while. Doesn't have a lot of female companionship so they are probably too big." Bucky said. Crista frowned and then smiled slightly. "I'm Bucky. Bucky Barnes." Steve watched as that extreme sadness spread back over her face before she smiled at the Sargent.

"Crista Frasier." She said, extending her hand in greeting. Steve watched as Bucky pulled her hands up to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "Nice to meet you." Bucky was looking up at her through his lashes with a smirk on his face. Crista gently pulled her hand out of Bucky's grasp and he smiled at her; the way he did at all the dames.

"Bucky. What were you saying about Dum Dum?" He asked trying to break what he felt was tension in the tent.

"He brought back some clothes for her. Did you want me to get them from him or send him in?" Bucky asked.

"I will go with you to him and bring them back." Steve said, watching Crista looked between the two of them. Bucky glared slightly but nodded. "Crista I will be right back." He said, watching her nod in response.

Steve walked out of the tent and noticed the four men that he was unfamiliar with. They must be the film crew. He hoped that Crista would stay in his tent. He didn't need the film crew picking up the fact that there was a strange woman in the Captains tent, wearing what doesn't really pass as clothes. He saw Dum Dum hoping out of their jeep with a brown wrapped package in his hands. Steve walked over to him and took the package.

"I hope I got the size right. But we could always fit them and pin them on her." There was a smile on Dum Dum's face that Bucky had had earlier. While Steve could admit that Crista was a beautiful dame, he was frustrated in his men. Granted they hadn't seen a dame in a while but they could at least keep their thoughts better hidden.

"I will have her try them on. I also wanted to discuss your attack from the back theory you said before we got the intel about the convoy." Steve said. Dum Dum's face changed into a happy expression. Any excuse for the man to hold a gun and shoot Nazi's was good in his eyes. "Bucky. Tell the crew that they can start filming as soon as they set up, but my tent is off limits." He said. He expected Bucky to come back with some snarky sexually charged comment but Bucky simply nodded.

Steve turned on his heel and headed back across the rough clearing where they had made camp. He need to get the planning started and he didn't know whether Crista was going to want to bolt or not. After this mission of theirs was over, he was going to sit down and figure out what she wanted. If it got too complicated and she stuck with this theory of hers, he would get her back to London and some help if that is what it took. He slipped through the tent flaps with his eyes closed; cloth didn't measure for knocking and he figured the film crew would have found it suspicious if he knocked on his own tent.

"I'm still dressed, dude." Crista's voice floated over from the general direction of bed and he cracked his eyes open. She was sitting on the top of the sleeping bag just looking at him.

"Clothes. If they don't fit um… we can just exchange them." Her hands reached out for the package and he handed them to her. As he was turning to leave he stopped as he remembered something. "Crista?" He asked.

She looked up from her package having opened it already.

"Yeah?" She asked. He breathed out quickly and decided to simply get over it.

"There is a film crew here, could you possibly stay in the tent?" He asked. "I don't really need the questions." He said. Her eyes scanned the tent quickly before landing on him.

"No worries Cap." She said, diving back into the package. He decided based on her tone that she said she would stay in the tent, so he moved back out to start planning to get down this damned HYDRA base.

AN: Hey Everyone! Sorry this took so long, but I will be getting up the rest of the chapters tomorrow. Shout out to aussieflugel and caughtinalandslide for following! I also would like to know if this should stay as one big long (potentially never ending) story or broken into one shots after Winter Soldier wraps? Shoot me a review and let me know. Or shoot me a review to just say hi. Or tell me how much you love the story, you know, whatever you feel. 3 Me.


	4. Chapter 4

Crista had stayed in his tent for the remainder of the day. When he returned that evening he had found her curled up on herself, snuggled into his sleeping bag asleep. He had gotten one of the extra ones out of a truck and slept on the floor, which he didn't mind. The next night Crista had curled up into the sleeping bag on the floor and again was asleep before he came back to the tent. He had thought about moving her onto the bed but decided against it; he didn't know what consequences waking a sleeping woman would have.

3 days down the road, the Howling Commandos were coming back from their successful blow up of the HYRDA base; dirty, sore and tired but successful. Everything had worked, just like Crista had said it would. He had not had a lot of time to speak to her, but this day solidified his mind into thinking that she truly believed she was from the future; and she was pretty lucky with her outcome prediction.

The men scattered as they came into camp, eager to tear down so that they could start moving to another local. Morita had overheard a very interesting tidbit of information about Dr. Zola during the raid. He was being moved on a high speed train designed by HYDRA, in just over a week.

The film crew had left them just before they attacked the base and Crista had remained out of view. He hadn't reported finding the civilian woman to anyone outside of his command, and it was nothing he wanted to deal with. The film crew had already seen that he kept a picture of Peggy in his compass; couple that with the fact there was a woman staying in his tent and he didn't want to have to deal with that blow up. He attempted to knock slightly before entering his tent.

Upon entering he froze. Crista was wearing the same dark blue skirt, the only one she had, and she was perched cross legged on his bed, with his sketch book opened on her lap. He had never shown anyone that book. Not even Bucky, even though Bucky knew that he could draw. Crista looked up at his intake of breath and smiled. The smile only slightly softened the fact that he felt completely violated. Those sketches were his. His way of dealing with things, his way of coping with this war.

"Sorry. I got bored." She said, glancing back down at the book. "Steve these are really good." He finally broke from his frozen state and moved to the bed, placing his shield there as he always did and tentatively took a seat next to her. The heat rushed to his face again as he noticed that the sketch she was looking at was one of Peggy.

It was one of the older ones. The one he had dared to do during basic training. He hadn't really started drawing again until he became Captain America and was on tour and had nothing better to do with his time. If he hadn't started drawing, he would have followed through on his thoughts to burn those tights.

"Did you want to be an artist before you got all Cap'd out?" She asked. Her turn of phrase confused him slightly.

"Got what?"

"You know, pumped up. Injected?" She said. He smiled, finally understanding that she was talking about the Super Solider Serum.

"I don't know what I wanted to do." He answered truthfully. Art had always been fun, but he still hadn't decided what path to take. Who would have thought that he would become the Allie's new hope?

"Well, these are fantastic. You could be a cartoonist."

"Like for Disney?" He asked. He had seen the cartoon of Steamboat Willy at the picture show.

"Yeah. There are a lot cartoons in the future." He didn't really understand why she was telling him this or what it had to do with him now, but he decided to drop it. He removed his helmet as she turned the page. "Who is she?" He looked back to her, down at the sketch on the page. It was another one of Peggy.

"Peggy." He answered. May seemed so close and yet so far away. The day that he could come back to London and take Peggy dancing was driving him insane.

"Peggy Falsworth?" The question hit him like an ice pick. He turned to her slowly, watching her eyes widened at whatever look was on his face. Why would she have linked Peggy to one of his men? Why would Peggy be known in the future as Peggy Falsworth? Not that he was decidedly going to marry her, but Falsworth? "I mean, Peggy… fuck what was her maiden name…. Carter?" She looked at him for a brief moment and then deflated. "Shit I'm sorry."

While the two of them hadn't had a lot of time to sit and discuss life, he had heard her speak enough to know she spoke like a sailor. So Peggy married someone named Falsworth. He glared out the front of his tent in the general direction of Falsworth's tent before deciding that punching the man wouldn't do any good now. It would be an unwarranted attack; and would mean that he believed Crista was from the future.

"So I take it Peggy and I don't work out." He said glaring at the wall of his tent. His nostrils flared at the thought but he had to remind himself that he didn't have a claim to Peggy at all.

"Not exactly." He looked over at her. "I mean it's not like he steals her from under you or anything."

"Your riddles are getting a little frustrating." He said. Now he was glaring at her, so he really didn't understand the snort of laughter that escaped her mouth.

"Sorry, I can't take you seriously when you have ash smudged on your face." He growled slightly in the back of his throat as he moved to grab a wash cloth. He emptied part of his canteen onto the cloth and scrubbed his face, meaning to get whatever that comment about Peggy meant out of Crista before she could hide it away. "Ok dude, you just made it worse. Come here." She said standing and grabbing the towel from his hand. He still didn't know what "Dude" meant but she had called him that numerous times over the last three days.

She made him sit on the cot, cupped his cheek with one hand and gently rubbed the wash cloth over the other cheek. His eyes closed at the movement. No one had taken care of him like this since his mom passed.

"You know I can't tell you too much about your future." She said quietly. His eyes opened and locked onto her aqua ones. "It will all make sense, I promise."

"Do I lose Peggy because you told me I would and so I screw up?" He asked quietly. She smiled, that retched sadness leaking back into her eyes. It had shown up sporadically over her time here and she would never explain why she seemed so sad. Her hands switched places, removing the dirt and ash from the other cheek as she sighed. She didn't say anything and once she was done, she bent over and kissed his cheek. Realizing that she wasn't going to elaborate he dropped the subject for another time.

"We move out tomorrow. Headed back to Italy to reconvene for the next mission." He said, standing up.

"What is the next mission?" She asked as he turned around. He knew that she would go talk with Bucky while he changed out of his Captain America suit but he figured he could take off the random things like boots, holsters and belts before she left. He stood up and unbuckled his belt and stretched his shoulders slightly.

"Arnim Zola. He is traveling through the Italian Alps next week. I think we should take him down." He was expecting some sort of helpful information from this supposed future person but she stayed silent. When he turned around, that sadness was back.

"Oh." She said quietly. As he watched her reaction to the news that they were going to capture Zola, a suspicion began to form. Well, it was always there, it just seemed to be getting stronger; this woman could be a HYDRA spy. They would never have thought to use a dame as a spy and one as pretty as Crista would certainly make his men go nuts. Ok she had. Dum Dum and Bucky had practically broken out into a fist fight at the base over who got the first congratulatory kiss from their strange companion. He knew she wouldn't tell him if she was, but he also knew a way to loosen her tongue a little.

"Usually after a successful mission we have a bon fire, some drinks. Relax a little and wind down. You are more than welcome to join." He said. He would have to run into the small town and get some liquor; not that his men would mind.

"Sounds good." She answered as she made her way from the tent. God he hoped she drank.

* * *

I knew that I couldn't drink as much as I would have liked. There was always the possibility of letting it slip to Steve that if they attacked Zola's train, Bucky was going to die. Steve passed me another glass of whatever it was we were drinking, pretty sure it was a beer of some sort, and my eyes landed on Bucky across the fire.

There was a reason that James Barnes was good with the ladies. The fire lit him in an almost ethereal way. The ease with which he laughed could bring a smile to Schmidt's face if the Red Skull had heard it. His floppy brown hair hung in his sea green eyes that held just a hint of a mystery. And the thought that this man would only be alive for another couple of days was crushing. Don't read too much into this, I had not fallen in love with him. He was just one of those people that being around would instantly lighten someone's day. No wonder Steve cared about him so much.

That was the other crushing thought. Steve, who had already lost his parents and thanks to a slip of mine knew that he wasn't going to get Peggy, was about to lose the only family he had left; and I couldn't even prepare him for it. I breathed in through my nose and tried to let go of the tension. Then Dum Dum said something, threw his arm around my shoulder and everyone laughed. Of course that could have been at the amount of beer that spilled out of his glass.

"Oh Dum Dum." I said. The man had taken a liking to me and I couldn't tell if it was sexual or protective. At the moment it didn't seem to matter.

"You know you wouldn't have as much fun without me." He said drunkenly in my ear.

"That, my friend is a solid fact." I said. I figured everyone was too drunk to realize that I was speaking in phrases they probably didn't understand. Everyone of course, except Mr. Steven, who every time I looked in his direction, quickly looked away from me. That was interesting.

The fire was blazing and kept the snow at bay well enough that I refused Bucky's jacket when he offered it to me. They didn't make gentlemen like that in 2013. I decided that I liked the 40's. I had consumed roughly two and a half glasses of that god awful beer before men started drifting to their tents in a drunken stumble. Steve was still sitting next to me watching the flames die down. Now Bucky looked good by firelight; Steve looked like a fucking God. It was almost painful to look at him he was so beautiful. I found myself wishing I had a camera, or Steve's ability with a pencil; anything to capture the look of him staring into the flames. He must have felt my stare because he looked over, one of his eyebrows raised.

"You alright there?" He asked. In response I paced my head on his shoulder and waited for the fire to die down a little more. "So, are you going to tell me who you really are?" He asked quietly. I frowned slightly, sure I had already had this conversation with him and sure I wasn't anywhere near drunk when I did. I straightened up and looked over at him.

"Crista Frasier. High School History teacher. Who are you?" I asked with a smile. Suddenly, Steve's face hardened as he looked back at the fire. He breathed in sharply through his nose and turned back to her.

"Are you a spy for HYDRA?" He asked. Normally I would probably have laughed, but the look on Steve's face basically stopped in my throat.

"What?" I asked blinking, trying to figure out if I had heard him correctly. I had told him the truth three days ago and had thought that he believed me.

"I saw your reaction to the news that we were going after Zola. Are you connected to him in some way that you don't want us to capture him? Like he is your boss?" Whatever small amount of anger I had at the accusation melted into extreme sadness at the thought of losing Bucky. Steve obviously had misunderstood that reaction. I scooted closer to him, watching as he stiffened slightly.

"What do I need to swear on to make you believe that I am not a spy? I will swear on anything you want. A bible, your shield, Bucky, whatever you want me to." Steve's blue eyes shifted back and forth between mine and he deflated slightly.

"You would swear on my shield?" I allowed a small smile to pull at my lips.

"If that is what it takes." He nodded slightly and looked back to the fire. I followed suit and breathed a couple of deep breaths. I guess in his line of work it paid to be suspicious.

"Sorry." He muttered.

"It's ok. I mean if I were a spy I probably would have killed you the first night." Steve laughed slightly but it was pretty humorless.

The fire took another ten minute to get down. The small flames were not throwing as much heat as they were before and I shivered slightly, wishing I had taken Bucky's jacket when he offered it. Steve shifted so that he was pressed against me and awkwardly draped his arm around my shoulders.

"How are you so warm all the time?" I asked looking up at him. He smiled down at me and shrugged.

"I think it has something to do with how fast my cells regenerate." That made sense, I guess. Science and I had never really gotten along.

"Well, I think I am pretty beat."

"Yeah. It's about time to turn in." He said, his voice rumbling up through his chest.

"Do you want me to smother the fire?" I asked, receiving a rather impressed look from the Super Solider.

"You know how?" I scoffed slightly and shoved his hand off my shoulder.

"Yes. Women love to Camp in 2013. Just then though… before that they hated it." I heard Steve laugh slightly as I smothered the fire with some dirt. He nodded, stood off the log and motioned toward his tent. Steve had been pretty busy the last two nights so he hadn't been here when I fell asleep.

"Beds yours by the way." He said pulling his shirt out of his pants and it stopped me mid-stretch. The sentence, not the shirt thing. OK mostly the shirt thing. I was under no misunderstanding as to what Steve slept in, but watching him take his clothes off was new… and fun. Maybe I had a little more to drink than I thought I had.

"No. It's yours. I am fine on the floor." Steve spun, his white undershirt still tucked into his pants and all tight against his remarkable torso. I am not sure what the look on my face was but I think I saw Steve blush at the look. "Sorry." I said, finally looking up at his face. Suddenly the tent was too warm and freezing at the same time. At least that was the only explanation for the goose bumps on my arms.

"Ladies get the bed." He toed off his boots and moved them to sit nicely next to his bag.

"Steve, I'm not a lady." I said. He spun around again with a shocked look on his face.

"Yes you are."

"Look Cap, just 'cause I have tits doesn't make me a lady." I said watching the look on his face. It always confused him when I spoke like that but I didn't really care. To argue my case I walked around the cot and curled up in the sleeping bag that was on the floor. I heard him huff but also heard him shift onto the cot in the next couple of minutes.

It was odd to try and fall asleep knowing that Steve was feet away in loose sleep pants and that enticing white wife beater. He hadn't moved either so I assumed that we were both lying awkwardly waiting for the other to go to sleep. Twenty minutes into the game of sleep chicken I heard the cot shift, and suddenly there was a presence behind me. He unzipped the sleeping bag that was around me right as I rolled over and shivered with the blast of freezing air that drenched me.

"What are you doing?" I asked quietly, not sure which response I wanted. Did I want Steve to make a move and take me there on the floor, or did I want an explanation that didn't involve sex. I couldn't tell.

"You are shivering so much I am sure that Morita can hear your teeth chattering on the other side of camp." He unzipped the sleeping bag all the way and opened it. The air was terribly cold but Steve settled next to me and draped the other bag over both of us. Before he could make a move I had curled up next to his extreme warmth, pressing against him as if he were the last life line I could ever think of. Apparently I hadn't realized I was that cold. He shifted his arm around my shoulders, tucking the sleeping bag underneath me to seal in the warmth.

I could feel the shivering starting to subside but it was slow. I could still feel a slight brush of cold air coming from the other side of Steve so I threw a leg over his hips and pinned the sleeping back down. It wasn't until I had wrapped my foot into a pocket of warmth from the sleeping bag that I noticed Steve had gotten very still.

"Are you ok?" I asked pressing my face into his shoulder. He was too tall to allow me to pull the sleeping bag up over my ear to warm it up without exposing Steve's feet, so I needed to find some other way to warm up.

"Um… yeah." He said stiffly. Oddly enough his breathing was a bit faster than normal; then I noticed that it wasn't just his voice that was stiff.

"Oh." I said. I was torn. My right foot was nice and warm so part of me really didn't want to move it, but another part knew that Steve was probably incredibly uncomfortable with the fact that he had an erection that was pressing into my thigh. Then a third part of me spoke up, the part that was noticing just how much was pressing into my thigh. My breathing sped up to match his rhythm as I looked up at him. He was still frozen but he was looking down at me too.

That third part was really loud as I noticed his lips. So loud in fact that suddenly I was kissing him. My hand tangled into the hair at the nap of his neck and I felt his hand press into my lower back. My tongue slipped out and traced his lower lip and I heard his breath hitch. Then he was pressing against my shoulder. I pulled back, not having realized that I had shifted up so that I was hovering over him.

"What?" I asked, looking down at him. He was flushed and breathing heavily.

"I can't." He said. I shifted my leg a little bit, watched him jerk in response and growl.

"Something tells me you can." I said leaning back down. He turned his face slightly and I stopped.

"Crista." He struggled through a breath as his hand trailed up to my elbow. "It's not proper." He said. Holy crap I think I came at that. That was probably the hottest and sweetest thing anyone had ever said.

"I'm not a virgin Steve." I said. That got him to look back up at me.

"I'm not either, but… we don't know each other and…"

"Oh my god stop talking. All you're doing is turning me on more." I said smashing my lips against his before he could protest further. His hands were steady on my waist as my hand slid under that crazy sexy wife beater of his.

"Crista." He said, pulling back again. Besides feeling him hard and thick against my thigh, I could also see the internal war he was having. His pupils had dilated and what was left of the color of his iris was way darker than the eyes that had looked at me from behind his Captain America helmet.

"Shh." I said, brushing my finger over his cheek. "It's ok. This is ok Steve." He blinked up at me, struggling with what I assumed was an upbringing including something about premarital sex, and the fact that he was also incredibly turned on. "Just let go." I said, hovering over his mouth. "Stop thinking. Just do what your body tells you to." He locked eyes with for a split second before his fingers dug into my hip, flipping me over so that I was pinned beneath him.

His hips grinded against mine as his tongue shoved its way into my mouth. Ok, as hot as Captain America is, sexy dominating Steve is indescribable. One hand shoved its way up my shirt while both of mine attacked the hem of his. My god he was solid, my hands slid over his waist and removed the shirt from his body. I had a quick glance down his torso and I think I came again. My shirt came over my head and I arched up so that Steve could unclasp my bra; which only stymied him for a split second. It went to wherever the hell my shirt ended up. Steve's mouth clamped back onto mine as his hands slid to the waist of my skirt. I reached down to remove it so that he could put his weight back on his arms instead of me.

One of his hands tugged at the waist of my thong but I grabbed his wrist. He pulled back and looked at me confused.

"Quid pro quo baby. I'm taking your pants off next." I said quietly. The fact that there was a camp full of army men separated from us by nothing but pieces of cloth had not been forgotten. I leaned up and latched my mouth onto Steve's neck, hearing his guttural growl as my fingers slipped into his pants. I slid them off him and pulled his boxers with them. I felt his head tilt down so his mouth was right by ear.

"Sneaky." He said with a smile. I shimmied out of my own under garments and yanked him back down to meet me. He was so solid and after everything that I had been through in the last three days it was reassuring to have his weight pressing down on me.

There were a lot of rumors about Steve Rogers flowing around after he woke up, and everyone knew that he had super strength; what people seemed to miss was how gentle he could be. His fingertips were brushing feather light touches down the outside of my leg, pulling my knee up so that he could get between my thighs. His mouth moved, trailing kisses down my jaw and onto my neck. His other hand was rubbing circles on my hip and I noticed just how large his hands were. I guess I could have waited for in the next second there was finger slipped in me. I breathed out in a quick breath and bit my lip.

"Oh my god." I said. The main rumor about Steve was that he was a virgin, and if I hadn't believed his statement five minutes before I sure as hell did now. A virgin didn't know how to do that with his fingers. I jerked up as one of them bent inside me, arching my back to press chests with the Super Soldier.

"Holy lord." He whispered in my ear.

"What?" I asked between hitched breaths. He pulled his fingers out slowly causing me to whine slightly.

"You are so ready." He said.

"Yeah well, you're perfect, it helps. Get on with it." Steve smiled down at me a second too long. I reached down, clasped my around that wonderful silky solidness and was rewarded with his surprised grunt.

"You are pretty ready yourself." I said, guiding him to exactly where I wanted him. All it took was the mere contact with me to have Steve shove in completely. It took every sense of will power in me not to scream. My head fell back and my eyes squeezed closed. I could feel the tension in his arms, pressing against my own.

"Are you ok?" He asked through a strangled breath.

"Yeah. You're just… big." I whispered. He stayed still for a bit to let me adjust and stretch, and that was when I realized he wasn't even fully in. "You're good." Steve shifted down, pressing further into me and I swear he was hitting the bottom of my stomach. And all I wanted was more.

Steve pulled out, pressing back in and this time I arched to meet him. He growled quietly in his throat at the action. A rhythm picked up after that, little white dots forming in front of my eyes every time Steve pressed in. Then I realized that Steve was still full of tension. That was when it occurred to me that he was trying to keep himself in check. My hands moved down to stop his hips and he blinked down at me. My body protested the lack of thrusting, but it would get plenty in a second. This idea could be really bad, but I had never heard of someone dying from sex so I figured I would be fine.

"Let go Steve." I whispered. He was confused for a second before realization swept over his perfect face. He shook his head. I nodded at him.

"I don't want to hurt you." He said. I pulled my lip in between my teeth.

"I'll tell you a secret." He lowered himself onto his elbows so that he was closer to my face. "I wouldn't mind." Now I am not into bondage and SNM and all that shit, but a little pain could push the pleasure that much further. Steve shook his head again. "Steve, let go. What is the point of sex if you aren't going to let go?"

"You don't understand."

"I do. I have seen your strength. Let go." He shook his head again and now I was frustrated. I leaned up, pulled his lower lip into my mouth and bit him. He jerked back, but I still had his lip, which I traced with my tongue. "That's an order Solider." I said, releasing his lip and kissing him. "Let go Steve. It's ok." I pulled both of my knees up and wrapped my legs around his hips. I watched as something clicked and instead of Captain America, Steve Rogers was on me. Not a controlled perfect soldier, but a man, primal and aroused. He let himself go and took his own pleasure.

And it was thrilling. I bit into his shoulder to keep from yelling about three times, my breath hitching as I tried to stay quiet. Steve was grunting quietly in my ear as I dug my nails into his back. I learned in the last fifteen minutes that a growling Steve was a happy Steve. My first orgasm hit so hard and out of the blue I might have blacked out. I arched into him, my breasts pressing against his moving chest which just added to the climax.

His fingers were digging into my hips and I was fairly certain that the inside of my thighs were getting bruised but I couldn't find it in me to care. Three orgasms in and I could barely breathe. The fourth hit so fast the last one wasn't over yet. I felt Steve's thrusts stutter slightly and then he was gone.

We both came down from our highs around the same time. It wasn't until I realized that there was cold air hitting the sweat on my skin did I try and tug the sleeping bag over us. Steve pulled back, his hair falling into his eyes as he looked at me, asking me if I was ok. I nodded and smiled, reassuring him that I was fine. My legs hadn't fallen off but I was sure I couldn't use them for a while. Steve reached into his bag and grabbed the wash cloth from earlier, slipping his quickly softening length from me. I jerked slightly when he cleaned me up as I didn't think he would, but he tossed the cloth in the corner and returned next to me. Steve reached over and tucked me against his side, pressing a kiss to my hair. Hopefully he wasn't too torn about what just happened; he would have to learn about one night stands at some point right?

**A/N- Thank you writer6886, linny3111, for following! I can't believe how many people are following this story, its so awesome. I love writing Crista and can't wait to get the rest of the story out.**


	5. Chapter 5

Soreness; check. Aching hip joints; check. Hickeys: check. Bruises: check, check, check and check. I was taking stock of what happened the night before while Steve was out making the final preparations for tear down. I had slipped my t-shirt and shorts on under the button down shirt and dark blue skirt that Dum Dum had purchased for me for easy travel. Steve had woken up at the crack of dawn and taken the wash cloth from the night before to clean it up. Hopefully Bucky wasn't too good at being able to tell that his best friend got lucky the night before. I was tying up my shoes when Steve came back in. His eyes scanned the rolled up sleeping bags and his packed up bag.

"You didn't have to do that." He said. I shrugged. "How do you feel?" He asked breaking eye contact and acting very shy.

"I'm fine. I won't be riding a horse anytime soon, but I don't think that will be a problem." He looked up, his entire face a delicate shade of pink. I smiled going over and brushing his perfect hair. "It's fine Steve." I assured him once again. He nodded and then looked out the tent.

"We are almost ready to go." He said. I nodded. I knew that in general we were heading back to Italy and I hoped that the road took us in the general area of that tree. I had been in the 1940's for three days and hadn't really done much except sleep with an American hero, not that I was complaining. I stepped outside into the watery winter sunlight and watched the Howling Commandos converge on the tent behind me. They were a well-oiled machine. They got Steve's tent dissembled and packed into a truck in about fifteen minutes. Steve climbed into a truck with Bucky, and two other Commandos who were speaking French. I didn't speak French so I wasn't sure what they were saying.

Either way, I climbed into the second truck with Dum Dum at the wheel, Morita and Falsworth. I glanced over at the Englishman, still completely appalled that I let his name slip around Steve. Of course she wouldn't be Peggy Falsworth yet, everyone knows that she and the Captain had a little something happening. We pulled onto the rough road, the entire contents of the truck jostling with every bump. Not that I didn't trust Dum Dum, but he had a bit of a wild side to him so I had a nice tight grip on the door handle.

Now I hadn't been out of the "camp" for the entire time that I was there, and having been unconscious when I was brought in, I really had no idea where I was. I twisted, turning to look at the truck carrying Steve and Bucky. Both men were laughing at something, and it twisted my gut to see it. Steve said they were going after Zola within the next week. That laughter was something that wasn't going to last long. As I turned back around, the oddest thing happened. I got incredibly dizzy.

I clamped onto the seat back in front of me and closed my eyes waiting for it to pass. I wasn't prone to dizziness so I didn't really know how to handle it.

"You ok sweetheart?" Dum Dum asked. I breathed in through my nose the most logical thing was pulling in oxygen, and took stock of what my body was doing. I was sure Steve's thoroughness the night before had nothing to do with what was happening, but I was humming. No like, really, I felt my body humming.

"Stop the truck." I said.

"What?"

"Dum Dum stop the trunk." I felt the truck lurch and scrambled out the door before anyone could say anything. I turned around and looked into the trees as I heard the other truck screech to a halt.

"Crista what the hell?" Dum Dum asked. I hadn't even heard him get out. "Sorry Cap. She got dizzy and then…"

"Crista!" I could feel it. It was like the smell of thanksgiving dinner to a starving person. An instinct that lead me through the thick copse of trees to the one whose heart was thrumming along time with mine. I stumbled over a tree root, probably the same one I tripped over the last time I was stumbling around here and felt Steve's hands pull me back up.

"What the hell?" Bucky asked. I turned to look at them, noticing only the two before turning back around. This was the weirdest thing I had ever experienced. I bet this is what a drug dog feels like; knowing that what they are looking for is close because they can feel it. I started moving again, this time being careful of twigs and roots that would try and grab me. I heard the two men huff behind me and start following. Five minutes later, I stopped.

It was right there, and suddenly I realized it wasn't the largest tree I had ever seen. The only reason it looked that way was because it was three trees, circling around each other, forming one thick trunk.

"That is something." Bucky said. To me, the trees were pulsing with a life that was like nothing I had ever experienced. I could feel the energy in them like a bass line at a rock concert. The trees three roots systems were all tangled together, pushing out of the dirt sporadically around the trunks.

"Crista. Come back to the trucks." Steve said. I turned to look at him. His face was hardened again. "We will get you to London. We will get you help." He said, allowing his mask to crack just enough to show self-loathing and pity.

"You still think I'm nuts." I said. It wasn't a question as I already could see the answer. "That is why you were against last night." Bucky perked up at that comment but didn't say anything. I looked back to the tree, feeling it calling me and all I wanted was to get back to 2013.

"Crista come with us. We can help you." Bucky said slowly, not sure of why he was offering help.

"You already have." I turned to look at the two best friends standing next to each other. "You got me back here." Before either could protest I launched around Steve. He only thought that I was letting him take me back for a second, because he stopped tugging on. "You are an amazing man Steve Rogers. Look me up in 2013." That pity look was back. I pressed a kiss to his lips, half wanting to and half seeing if that would make the self-loathing come back. It did.

"Wha…?" Bucky breathed. I turned to him. He was only armed with a hand gun and he was looking between Steve and I with a confused expression that wanted way more answers than I was going to give him. I hugged him to.

"Goodbye Bucky." I whispered. He hugged me back, and was still confused as I pulled out of the hug. I kissed him too. Hell he was going to be dead in a week. That and he was still cute as hell.

"Crista. Stop this. Come back with us." Steve said as I turned back to the tree. Its rhythm was almost a full on drum beat now; it was calling me. Like Jumanji. I took a step over the roots and felt my skirt catch.

"Oh. Won't need these." I said, slipping the skirt down my legs. Bucky glanced at Steve before I pulled the shirt over my head. Back in modern day clothes was refreshing. I folded the skirt and shirt, placing them in Bucky's hands and kissed both men one more time. "2013 Steve. Look me up. But not before then, I won't understand yet." I whispered. He sighed a frustrated sigh but I didn't wait for him to talk. I turned and placed both hands palm up on the tree trunk.

* * *

He didn't know what to do. He could always carry her back to the trucks. Crista needed to be in London, not the middle of the forest. But when she touched her palms to the tree trunk something happened. Steve felt like he got hit in the gut and apparently Bucky did to as he grunted. When they looked back up, Crista was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell just happened?" Bucky asked.

"Crista?" He called, walking over to the tree to see if she was hiding.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't touch it." Bucky said. He turned around giving Bucky an incredulous look.

"Bucky come on." He said. But his friend was paler than he had seen him in a while.

"She disappeared Steve. She's gone. She's not here." Bucky said, running a hand through his hair. "What the hell happened?" He restated. Steve sighed.

"She said she was from the future. That was why I wanted to get her back to London. I'm sure there are great facilities there…"

"Steve. SHE IS GONE." Bucky said looking over at the three twisted tree. He was right. Crista was gone. She was not behind the tree, she was not in the tree. Steve couldn't even smell her anymore. Steve made eye contact with Bucky before nodding.

"Let's go back." He said, turning toward the trucks. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to tell the Commandos. One second they had a pretty dame tagging along, the next second she jumped out of the truck, touched a tree and disappeared.

"So um… what happened last night?" Bucky asked. While Steve did freeze in his steps, he could feel the heat pooling in his cheeks. "You slept with her?" Steve wasn't entirely comfortable with that fact yet. While she had disappeared, he figured it would be another 70 years until he truly believed she wasn't crazy. He felt like he had taken advantage of a crazy person and the thought set in his stomach like a rock. "How was it?" Steve huffed, before deciding on the truth.

"Fantastic." He said. Bucky whooped, causing Steve to glare at him. They were still deep in Nazi territory. Buck punched him in the arm to continue the explanation. "She made me let go. Not check myself or anything. She was covered in bruises this morning." He said, that self-loathing coming back as he thought of her hips sporting hands in the exact shape of his palms.

"She told you to?" Bucky asked.

"She made the first move."

"I think I am going to like the future." Bucky said. Steve smiled and laughed slightly.

"Let's get Zola first."


	6. Chapter 6

He was falling. Into a ravine so deep Steve couldn't see the bottom. And he was screaming; scared. He was terrified.

Steve jerked awake and stared at his bedroom ceiling. 70 years and he still had nightmares about that god forsaken train. He pushed the covers off him, letting the spring air hit his sweat soaked skin. Glancing at the clock he picked up his cell and hit speed dial 2.

"It wasn't your fault Steve." Natasha mumbled half asleep.

"You're starting to scare me with that ability." He said, opening the apartment window to allow the sounds of Brooklyn in.

"The only reason you ever call at 2 am is because you think you killed someone."

"I've killed plenty of people." He said, leaning against the window frame and looking out at the street below. She grunted as she shifted; he could hear the sheets rustling.

"Join the club." He laughed slightly, hearing Clint say something in the background, and then they were quiet for a while. "Who was it?" She asked suddenly.

"Bucky." He answered. Steve could still hear the scream. At least this time he hadn't turned back into the train and been confronted with a Chitari.

"You know, you can talk to people about this. People who can help you. People who have far more patience than I do." Steve laughed again, but the only person he thought could understand was supposedly out there somewhere in the city and possibly didn't even know him yet.

"Go back to sleep Nat."

"Hmm. Clint get up." She said before clicking the end button on her phone. He rolled his eyes at his team mates. While Natasha claimed she didn't have patience, she had not left Clint's side since the Battle of New York. And she always answered the phone when he called.

May in New York was perfect. The winter was melting and summer hadn't come barreling in yet. When Steve wasn't on missions for Fury he spent his time in Central Park. He liked to watch all the families running around. It made him think that putting that plane in the water wasn't as devastating as it could have been. The next day, it was the perfect way for him to forget that nightmare. He was sitting on one of the benches, hidden under the shade of a tree.

A little girl dashed by his legs, screaming as her brother chased her and Steve smiled. The boy stopped in front of him and looked up, his mouth dropping open. The boy couldn't be more than seven as he took a step closer to Steve. After the battle of New York he had become used to this, people stopping him, or whispering behind his back and asking if he was actually Captain America.

"My Grammy said you saved the world." The boy said. Steve simply smiled. "Mom said you protect the world. From Aliens." He whispered the last part and it made Steve laugh. "I want to be just like you when I grow up." Steve smiled and leaned down a little so he was on the same level as this kid, heartwarming at the thought of being someone's role model.

"I have a lesson for you then." The boy's eyes lit up and if possible, got wider. "Stop being mean to your sister." All that did was make the boy pout.

"Lucas. I'm so sorry." A young woman came up and scooped the boy Lucas into her arms.

"Not a problem Ma'am." Steve said, leaning back into the bench. She looked down, focusing on him for the first time, her mouth forming a small "o".

"Mommy, its Captain America. He says I have to be nice to Lily to be like him." Lucas said. His mom laughed slightly and then nodded.

"He is right." She put Lucas down and smiled over at Steve as the boy went running off. "Thank you. I can't get him to stop pestering her."

"Not a problem." He repeated.

"Have a nice day Captain." She said before following her children back to the blanket they had laid out. "Oh, and thank you. For everything." She had turned, taking steps backward as she spoke to him. He smiled slightly to himself; it was always nice to know that people remembered and actually cared about the sacrifices made.

He flopped onto his couch. 2013 was boring, and chaotic and confusing all at the same time. He had spoken to Peggy once since the Battle of New York. Her children had put her in a nursing home in Washington D.C. Falsworth had passed five years ago. The last of the Howling Commandos to hold on. Steve hoped that Dum Dum had a beer waiting for him when Falsworth passed. He reached over and clicked on the news.

Steve had a love hate relationship with the news. He loved being informed, but he hated what he was being informed about. The only thing the news covered was war, battle, terrorists, rapists, and murder. Somehow, he thought that he would have saved a better world. He glanced at it as he turned the volume up and starred absent mindedly into the kitchen thinking about food.

"Good news today. The American Hiker who got lost in Germany's Black Forest has been found. New York teacher Crista Frasier…" His head snapped back. There she was. A video of Crista, with her curly brown hair and turquois eyes from outside her hotel in Germany was on his television screen. "Sources say that Ms. Frasier is completely fine. While on a hike with her family, she experienced some dizziness and according to her, tripped down a slight incline which prevented the search party from finding her. She got back up the incline, a little bruised, but she is said to be returning to work on Monday for the start of school." The female anchor said.

"Guess those Manchester kids are either excited to see her, or wanted a sub." Manchester. Manchester High School. He knew where that was. Crista taught at Manchester High School. He watched the video again. She was wearing the same thing she had been when she touched that tree.

He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. He had yet realized that he hadn't let that night go. There was still a small part of Steve that thought he had taken advantage of an insane woman. He hadn't. She was telling the truth.

If one more person asked me if I was fine, I was going to punch them. No one had seen the extent of my bruises so I didn't have to explain away everything because the hand shaped ones on my hips were harder to explain. By third period I was completely sick of my students asking me about Germany and the hill I fell down. My AP American History students all came stumbling in in the ten minutes that they had between classes and started unpacking. They had a paper due today and I saw them starting to talk about it. The bell rang and they all moved to their seats. These guys were my junior's and one of my favorite classes. I told them at the beginning of class that I would treat them as college students as it was supposed to be a college class, so I spoke to them like I would my friends.

"All right guys. I am going to warn you, if one more person asks me how I am, I will throw my shoe at you." They laughed slightly. "Pass your papers up to the front of your rows and I will collect those before we start the class." My class was set up in a different configuration than most. The rows were only three desks deep, and instead of facing the white board, the desks were down the sides of the room facing each other, leaving me an aisle down the middle.

"If your papers are not in this stack you will not be considered here today." I announced as I walked down my aisle to pick them up. I clicked my laptop over to bring up the power point and moved back to the front of the room.

"All right guys. So, I know that this is American History but I also know that you guys didn't cover this last year in world history. We are shifting into World War II, who knows the dates of WWII?" Will, the quiet gay kid in the back raised his hand. "Will?"

"1943-45." He said. The fact that all the other students were nodding their head made me shake mine.

"Close. America got pulled into the war in 1941, but to understand the war better, we are going to start from the beginning." Before I could say anything, the phone in the room rang. "'Scuse me." I answered it, putting it to my ear. "Hello."

"You have your guest speaker here, you little tart." Amy in the office said and I could hear the smile on her face.

"What?" I didn't have a guest speaker for the day, so I was confused.

"Well, I know that usually you have to alert us ahead of time, but I sent him to your room anyway. He should be there in five minutes and I want all the details." With that she hung up. I guess today was going to be an improvisation day.

"All right guys." I moved back to the front of the room, determined to get through as much as possible before this guest speaker showed up. "So, after the first world war Germany was in a really bad place. And in 1933 our old buddy Adolf came into power. Now while Adolf was a terrible man, back crap crazy and over all disgusting human being…" I paused as the kids laughed. "He is the perfect example of a dictator. He came into power, he reigned and then he fell. What he did was boost the German spirit. He took a proud people that he saw broken, and he reminded them of their pride, which in itself was good. It wasn't until he decided to blame the Jewish community for everything wrong in the country that he really showed his crazy pants side. In 1939, Hitler developed the first Ghetto."

"Like Queens?" I rolled my eyes at the question; Queens wasn't that bad.

"It is how we got the term. The German ghetto's where places that were enclosed by a wall, where they moved all the Jewish families. This was a holding place before he would give the order to send them into the concentration camps. Now 2 years later, America got pulled into the war. How?" I asked, turning to the class.

"Because what Hitler was doing was wrong." Kaitlin said in the back.

"True it was wrong. It was despicable. He was murdering innocent people and dumping bodies into giant holes. But that was not why America got involved. Remember America was still trying to get out of the Great Depression. Our economy was shot, and unlike today, the government took the time to fix our country before rushing to the aid of others. So why did we finally get pulled into the war?" Everyone started shifting, not making eye contact with me in as if that would make me forget the question.

"December 7th, 1941." The voice shocked me. I didn't even hear him come in. I had almost forgotten how quiet he could be. "Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor after America cut off their oil supply." Every head had snapped to the back as non-other than Captain Steve Rogers was standing in the door way.

"Well thank you students, I'm so glad you remember what you read." Steve smiled, truly smiled. I don't think he smiled in my whole 4 days in the 40's. Then I noticed the squealing, the shifting and the murmurs. "All right guys. Ladies, get your panties out of a twist and put that phone away. Captain Rogers is here to speak to you guys today about World War II. I figure you will pay attention to him over me." Steve made his way down the aisle, still smiling.

"Crista." He said quietly.

"Steve. Thank you for the improv lesson." He chuckled at that and turned around. "All right guys, I want you to show Captain Rogers way more respect than you show me. I want your questions to be academic and respectful. I don't want to hear 'Do you have a girlfriend' or 'what kind of underwear do you wear', Will." The class snickered as Will made a melodramatic "shucks" face. "If Cap feels disrespected by any of your questions I give him full permission to throw his shield at you. They are all yours Cap." I said moving to the back of the room. I sat behind the desk, marking down the names of the people who turned in their paper, listening to Steve start to take questions.

Throughout the hour class I only had to deflect two questions. There was one point when Steve paused as he looked at me, but then shook his head and continued with the questioning. He was pretty good in front of a group of people. Even better if half of that group wanted to ask about Aliens or take a picture. The kids left, all thanking him as they walked out the door.

"I figured since you told the front office that you were a guest speaker, they might have sent someone to see." I lied. He looked up at me and made his way down the aisle of desks and stopped in front of me.

"No worries. How are you?" I bit back the sigh, I figured it anyone had the right to ask it was Steve.

"Fine." He nodded.

"Great group of kids." I nodded in agreement. I saw his eyes travel my torso, landing on my hip. "Those look bad." He said, jerking his chin at me. I reached down pulling my shirt up slightly to expose the yellow and green skin in the shape of his hand.

"They're fine."

"They still look new." I frowned slightly, shortly coming to realize that he had been awake in this century for almost two years.

"Yeah. It was just about five days ago." He breathed in slightly and looked up at me. "Want to go to lunch?"

"That sounds good."

The faculty lounge was empty during nutrition as most people stayed in their class rooms. Steve was pushing his cafeteria food around his plate, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"So. How has life been?" I asked. Steve looked up at me, a devastated expression across his face.

"I'm sorry I thought you were crazy."

"It's ok."

"You knew about Bucky." It was a punch in the gut hearing that name. Knowing that only six days ago I had seen the man full of life and laughter. I nodded slowly, watching Steve get slightly angry. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Would you have let him go? Would you have let him on the train if you knew what was going to happen?" He shook his head slightly.

"And the plane?" He asked, less anger in his voice.

"One shouldn't know too much about their own future. It colors their judgment. Would you have put the plane in the ice had you known that you were going to miss 70 years?" He leaned back, an argument warring on his face.

"Yes. It was better than the alternative." I sighed. One, Steve would always have done right the thing. But one could never have known what they would have done with different information.

"You say that now. But if Bucky had been alive?" He shook his head.

"I didn't come to yell at you. I came because I missed you. I tried to find you when I woke up but, knowing that you wouldn't have known me, that I couldn't have talked to you about Bucky, it killed me." I reached across the table and took his hand. I knew the last two years had been hard on him, but I don't even want to think about what would have happened if he sought me out. I might never have gone to Germany in the first place.

"How have you been?"

"I have been dreaming about Bucky. A lot." He said. I nodded. "Since the New Year actually. Knowing it was 2013 and I could find you, brought up a lot."

"It's a good thing. If you had turned up two weeks ago I would have been really confused." He chuckled again, and I realized that the man sitting across from me was not the man I spent last week with. He was more relaxed. He was not fighting a war.

"I couldn't actually find you." I nodded, taking a bit out of my salad.

"How have you been adjusting to everything?" I asked, changing the subject from the fact that Captain America had been looking for me.

"I wanted to thank you, cell phones were not as confusing as I thought they would be, and I have mastered the internet." I laughed at his carefree joking. "And those shorts were not too short." I laughed again as that pink tainted his cheeks again.

Lunch was great. Seeing as I had a free fourth period we sat for almost an hour talking. About his apartment, how he spent his days in the modern world, everything.

"How is SHIELD?" I asked. I had diverted a question about the organization from one of my students, but there was no one in the room with us.

"Good. They have me working. Actually Fury wants me to relocate to D.C."

"Wow. That's a big move."

"Not as big as 70 years. He said he needs me closer to actual headquarters." I nodded. "How was your trip back?" The tone in his voice and the tension in his face told me that he wasn't asking about my flight back from Germany.

"Hell. I hope I never have to do that again." It wasn't something I liked remembering. That travel felt like I was being pulled apart from the inside out and stitched back together with a dull need and thick thread. "I have done some research about them. Trying to see if there are random disappearances that can't be explained."

"What did you find?"

"There are actually quite a few. Mostly in Scotland. I found the name of a couple who disappeared for like five years and suddenly reappeared in America." Steve nodded, not sure how to process the information I'm sure. It was like he was getting way too much thrown at him. "I'm going there this Summer to speak with them."

"You're going to Scotland?" I nodded. "To speak to people about potential time travel?"

"I understand why you thought I was crazy."

"Are you going alone?" I shrugged.

"I was going to." The thought of going to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie terrified and thrilled me. The Scottish Highlands were a land shrouded in mystery and fairytales.

"I will go with you." I felt the biggest smile pull across at my face as I looked at him.

"You know Rogers, if you wanted to have sex again all you had to do was ask." This time, along with the satisfying pink tint to Steve's cheeks, he laughed.

"Good to know."


	7. Chapter 7

"What the fuck is going on?" I asked again, freeing my hands from around his neck. Natasha Romanoff quirked an eyebrow, looked over to our other companion and then back to me.

"I like her." She said, shoving past me. I blinked at the small smirk on Steve's face.

"Is that a good thing?" I asked.

"Well, she isn't likely to shoot you." He said, pulling out a chair for me at the small square table.

"Not on purpose." Natasha said across from me. I sat down and looked over at Steve as he settled into the chair.

"This is Sam. Sam this is Crista." Like I had said, Sam was rather impressive for a normal human being. He gave me an easy smile now that he noticed Steve seemed to trust me.

"Thanks for opening the door." I said. He chuckled. "So. Who wants to tell me why I am in DC?" That certainly brought the conversation to a stop. Sam's eyebrows quirked in interest as Steve and Natasha looked at each other over the table. Steve's joking manner had dropped and suddenly I was sitting next to Captain America. The switch between Steve Rogers, every day guy who just happened to be built like a God, and Captain America the world's best solider who knew exactly what to do with those God like muscles was something that still impressed me. It was almost like he had multiple personality disorder.

"HYDRA." Steve said. I looked over to him as he made eye contact with me.

"HYDRA is dead. It died when you killed Schmidt." I said. I knew this. I was a history teacher after all. Steve took a breath through his nose and looked at the table for a second.

"SHIELD was founded after the end of World War II." He said. "Peggy Carter and Howard Stark started it after the SSR was shut down." I nodded. I knew all this. "Well, they recruited scientist with strategic value. Including Zola."

"Why would they do that?" I asked. What the hell? Peggy and Howard knew that Zola was second in command at HYDRA, it was illogical of them to recruit him for something that would become a huge government agency. Steve shrugged.

"He's been breeding HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D. since its inception." He paused, starring hard at the table top. "They killed Howard and his wife." The desperation in his voice and made my heart break. I reached over and squeezed his forearm, getting a small smile back.

Zola was once again ruining Steve's life. It is a terrible predicament; when a friend is in trouble and you can't do anything about it is really frustrating. Then again… if Zola had died back in 1944 when they captured him instead of taking him prisoner, Steve would still be having as normal a life as he could have being Captain America.

"You look pretty intense over there." Sam said. "Something on your mind?" I looked up to him, not having realized that I was staring at the table so hard. I glanced at Natasha before looking at Steve.

"I can fix this." I said, quietly looking at Steve. He frowned, attempting to follow my train of thought. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he looked at me.

"No." He said quietly.

"Steve listen…"

"No. I am not going to let you do that Crista." I took a deep breath attempting to explain my side.

"Crista." I looked over to Natasha who had an eyebrow quirked. "The Triskeleon is the most heavily fortified building ever. How exactly do you think you will be able to stop this?" She asked.

"I said fix." I said. Her eye brow quirked higher if that was possible. I turned back to Steve. "And I can." He shook his head.

"How?" Sam asked. Steve breathed in through his nose and looked back up at me. I asked with my eyes, should I tell them what I meant?

"Might as well. Everything should be put on the table." It was my turn to breathe in through my nose and look at Sam and Natasha.

"There are certain people…" I started, hoping to be able to explain this well enough. Then again, these people were part of Captain America's world; there probably wasn't a lot that would throw them. "That are genetically capable of time travel." I watched Natasha's eye brow raised and Sam leaned away from her the same way that Steve had 72 years before. "There are places scattered across the globe where the time continuum weakens at certain times of the year. The ancient Celts celebrated these times of the year as fire feasts; Beltane and Samhain. You might know them as the Spring and Fall Equinox's. I happen to be one of those people." I said.

"What makes you think we would believe that?" Natasha asked.

"Because I am telling you that it's true." Steve said. Natasha and Sam looked at each other.

"In 2013 I was in Germany with my family. During a hike I fell against a tree and then I was in 1944 with Captain America." I turned to Steve, focusing on him. "Where I can return and tell you to kill Zola after the pertinent information is gotten from him." His head was still shaking.

"I'm not going to ask you to do that."

"You aren't. This is my choice Steve." Something in his face changed and hardened. He looked away to compose himself for a second, before looking back over at me whatever he was thinking about hidden again.

"You said you never wanted to do that again." He did have a point there. I had said that I never wanted to go through that travel again.

"I would do it, if it means your life."

"Bri said that the third time through almost killed her mother."

"Claire was 55. I am 27. I highly doubt it will have the same effect."

"If you die on the way back it would not be worth it." I sighed, looking over to see that Sam and Natasha had been watching the back and forth like a ping pong game.

"If the world got you, it would be." He glared at me again before deciding to change tactics.

"How would you anchor to 1944?" Steve had heard enough of the conversation with the Mackenzie's to hear about anchoring: you needed someone or something prominently in your mind to be help you steer through the time continuum.

"Bucky." Steve's face changed again; shock and sadness coming through his Captain America Mask. "I will only be there for like two point five seconds and then I will touch the tree and come back here."

"And your anchor back?"

"My entire life." He laughed slightly but there wasn't any humor in it. Whether the silence that followed was uncomfortable I wouldn't know. I just remember staring at Steve and trying to convince him that this was going to be ok; that I could do this.

"While I hate to break the starring contest, this sounds like it's going to take a lot of time." Natasha said leaning forward onto her elbows. "That is something that we don't have." I sighed and looked over to the red head. What she didn't seem to be grasping was that I had more than enough time. When I got back from 1944, none of this would be happening.

"How about this. If we fail, then I can't stop you." It was my turn to glare at him. Then, for the first time since I had arrived in DC, Steve's boyish smile sprang onto his face.

"That's not funny." He leaned back in his chair with his hands pressed into his knees like he had when I told him I was from 2013. That stupid smile was on his face this time though.

"So chipper." Natasha muttered, causing Steve to laugh, this time with a bit more humor. "So, the question is who at S.H.E.I.L.D could launch a domestic missile strike?" She continued.

"Pierce." Steve said in reply. Pierce, that name sounded so familiar. Pierce. From the way Steve said it, I could assume it was a last name. Who was notable, named Pierce and worked for the government. Jason Pierce, but he was fairly new to the white house, and something told me that the white house was not trying to kill Steve. Wait, no the White House, S.H.E.I.L.D. Alexander Pierce.

"Wait Alexander Pierce?" I asked looking at him. "Senator Pierce from New York?" Steve nodded, the Captain America mask back in place. "I voted for him. What a douche." Steve chuckled as he heard Sam laugh from in the Kitchen.

Steve was not happy about Crista being involved with the mission to get Sitwell. Granted she had not accompanied them to get Sam's suit, and she had lunch waiting for them when they got back to the apartment… that was nice. But putting her in danger was something that he had never wanted to do. He and Nat were waiting at the building and he was glaring at her.

"Save it for Sitwell Rogers." She said, rolling her eyes for the eighth time. It had been her idea to bring Crista into this. Nat said that Sitwell might be less argumentative if he walked around the corner to a beautiful woman. Crista had apparently felt so guilty about not telling him to kill Zola in 1944 that she was willing to do almost anything to help now.

"Why did you have to suggest this to her?" He asked.

"She wanted to help. She was gonna go back in time for you Steve, something that she apparently never wanted to do again. A car ride isn't going to hurt her." Before he could answer Steve's phone buzzed.

"We're here. Coming up now." She said shortly before hanging up. Steve and Nat were standing just inside the door to the roof. Crista and Sitwell were supposed to take the elevator to the top floor and one flight of stairs, where he would run into shadow. Steve would take it from there. He also wasn't sure how Crista was going to react to the actual plan to get Sitwell to talk; thinking you just saw someone get killed could be traumatic. Not that Crista wasn't smart, but they hadn't wanted her to possibly spill what was happening. The door to the stairwell opened just below him.

"It really is an incredible building. It was actually built in the 1920's for the Rockefeller family business." Crista said.

"Great. And why exactly does your boss do business on the rooftop?" Crista came around the landing with Sitwell just to her left. She looked up at the door and smiled. Oddly, Sitwell seemed relaxed, aloof and bored. That meant that Crista had done her job in not spiking his suspicions.

"Why for the view of course." They reached the top of the stairs and she turned, glancing into the shadows to see him. "It's pretty amazing." She said.

"Uh-huh. What is so amazing about it?" To answer his question, Steve grabbed Sitwell by the shoulders. Natasha shoved around Crista to shield her as Steve threw Sitwell through the door. He didn't hold back either. This man had betrayed his country and he needed to be scared. Sitwell needed to know the strength that Captain America was capable of. He went rolling across the rooftop as Steve followed.

"Tell me about Zola's algorithm." He said. He could hear Nat and Crista walking behind him. Crista was sort of stumbling he could tell.

"Never heard of it." Sitwell replied getting to his feet. So that was how he wanted to play this huh. That was fine with Steve.

"What were you doing on the Lemairan Star?" He asked continuing his stride toward the Agent. Sitwell had been backing away from him and was almost at the edge of the rooftop.

"Uh, Steve." Crista said, but he ignored her. He did hear Nat shush her though. From what he knew about women, he would be hearing about that later.

"I was throwing up. I get sea-sick." Sitwell replied. Had Steve been in a less threatening mood that would have been almost funny. By this time the roof ledge hit the backs of Sitwell's calves. Steve reached out, grabbing his lapels and steadying the rat bastard. For some reason though, that made the man smile. A sleazy smile that HYDRA must teach its recruits. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you are going to throw me off the roof? Because that's really not your style Rogers." Steve breathed in, smoothing out the wrinkles he had made in the man's suit. He heard the cue from Sam that told him he was in place.

"You're right. It's not. It's hers." He stepped slightly to the side as Nat kicked Sitwell in the chest, sending him over the edge.

"Oh my god." Crista said. "What the hell…"

"Oh wait, what about that girl from accounting? Laura? Lis…" Nat started. Steve rolled his eyes. If Natasha Romanoff got her mind set on something there was no turning back. He wasn't sure that he could handle his best friend freaking out, saving the world and Nat trying to get him a date.

"Lilian, with the lip piercing right?"

"What is going on?" Crista came up beside, her hand slipped around his arm and her fingers dug into his bicep.

"Nat is trying to get me a date." He said. "Sorry about the roof thing." He smirked down, but Crista was nothing if not resilient. She shrugged it off and turned back to Natasha.

"With someone with a lip piercing?"

"Yeah she's cute." Natasha said.

"No, he's not ready for that." Crista said just as Steve said "Yeah I'm not ready for that." He laughed slightly before catching the whir of an engine.

"He still isn't comfortable with one night stands." Nat's eyes widened as Steve huffed.

"Just hush will you." He said to Crista as Sam sprang over the roof top, dangling Sitwell from the back of his jacket.

That got Sitwell to spill any answer Steve wanted.

Sitwell seemed very uncomfortable. Then again so was Steve. Natasha and Crista were smashed into the back with Sitwell and apparently Natasha was asking about him. More specifically his penis. Thankfully Sitwell put an end to that train of conversation.

"Hydra doesn't like leaks."

"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it." Sam barked. Crista snorted in the back slightly as Nat poked her head around to the front seat.

"Insight is launching in sixteen hours, we are cutting it a little bit close here."

"I know. We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the helicarriers directly." He said, glancing back to catch Crista's eye. They had to drop her somewhere safe. There was no way in hell that he was allowing Crista anywhere closer to S.H.E.I.L.D. then she already was.

"What?" Sitwell said, leaning forward. "Are you crazy? That is a terrible, terrible idea." Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a thumping on the roof. Before Steve could process, Sitwell was yanked from the car through the closed window and thrown into oncoming traffic.

Before he could react, Natasha had climbed forward into his lap. He looked back to see that metal arm with a gun.

"Crista." He yelled. He couldn't see her. Did Sitwell grab her? Was she gone?

"I changed my mind Steve… I don't want to be friends anymore." She yelled. His racing heart only slowed a little.

"She got down, she's fine." Nat said. Steve glanced around before reaching down and shifting the car into park. He heard Crista grunt slightly before she climbed back up into the seat proper. The Winter Solider went flying off the car, digging his fingers into the asphalt of the highway. The man stood up, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred and stared at them through the glasses of his mask.

As Nat aimed, something slammed into them from behind, causing Crista to slam forward into the back of his chair.

"What the hell?" She muttered, staring forward through the windshield. Just before they hit him, the Soldier's head tilted slightly to the side before he jumped catching the windshield with his left arm. "Whoa." Crista muttered. Nat was digging around at his feet; the force from behind had caused her gun to drop.

Suddenly Crista screamed. Steve turned in time to see the metal arm clamped around her shirt, yanking her through the shattered back window.


	8. Chapter 8

Flying through the air: Not my favorite. I just had this imprint of Steve's horrified face as I got pulled out the window. Let me clarify; through a fucking window. Then I was being held against someone, my face pressed into their neck. Their very enticing neck. I pulled back slightly, cursing the thought of how hot this guy was. He had a weird mask thing on and his shoulder length hair was blown off his face. Despite the situation, I suddenly felt very calm, as if Steve were the one holding me and I knew I wasn't going to be harmed. This man holding me with a metal arm, not letting me see his face was somehow familiar to me; and for some reason, I trusted him.

Then he shifted me to the other arm and slammed his metal one through the windshield. I was pretty sure that I had yet to stop screaming, but my blood froze when he came back with the steering wheel. I think I heard Sam say something as this man threw the wheel away and grabbed me around the waist again.

"Sam!" I yelled as gun shots came through the roof. Then there was that blasted flying through the air again. But even then, as this man was obviously trying to kill three of my friends (I was friends with Black Widow! What!), I wasn't afraid for my life. We landed on the hood of the hummer with a jerk. My fingers were linked around his neck, his hair skimming over the backs of my hands as it blew backwards from the speed of the car. I was pulled back to the present situation when the Hummer slammed into the back of Sam's car again. The Winter Soldier, 'cause I had made that connection, grabbed the hood with his metal arm and me with his other. Sam's cruise slammed into the center divider and started to flip.

"STEVE!" Now, I'm not sure why yelling someone's name helps, but literally they were the only words coming out of my mouth. The grip around my waist tightened and I looked back to the mask. He was still so familiar. Then my eye caught the three humans sledding down the freeway. The hummer passed them, steering into the center divider and stopping. The solider hopped down with me in his arms like he walks on the freeway every day, cause you know that's a thing apparently. As soon as my feet hit the concrete I turned, trying to run to see if Steve was ok. I was stopped by a cold strong grip on my wrist. I turned back to look at him as he handed me off to someone who had climbed out of the back seat.

I was incredibly confused. I was sure, from what I had heard and witnessed, that this man didn't care if he hurt or killed people; innocent or not. But for some reason, he was keeping me from harm. It didn't make any sense, and if I could just see his eyes, maybe I could see something there. He said something, presumably in Russian and as he spoke, the feeling of familiarity intensified. I was exchanged for a very large gun which he pointed down the freeway and fired.

I turned in time to see Steve shove Natasha out of the way, taking the hit on his shield. Again, shouting his name really wasn't going to help here, but I did, trying to break free from the guy holding me, to get to my best friend. Who had just gone flying off the side of the freeway. That was when I froze. I knew Steve was basically indestructible, but flying off a freeway had to be damaging to anyone. The Solider and the three other guys who had gotten out of the car were calming walking down the freeway firing machine guns.

I was still frozen in place, the image of Steve still replying in front of my eyes. Natasha shot a single bullet from behind some car.

"Crista! He's fine. Run!" I wasn't sure what most of those words meant at the moment but at her voice I looked over to her before the Soldier fired another round at the car behind which she was hiding. About 4 seconds later, she went flying over the other side of the freeway as the Soldier fired another round. Damn they were dropping like flies. I wasn't sure where Sam had rolled off to but I hoped he was safe. I was moving, I realized that. The guy holding me pulled me up next to the Soldier who grabbed a machine gun and pointed it over the side, waiting to kill my other friend, or acquaintance, or whatever we were. My keeper let me go and I looked over to the Soldier. That was when I felt the tears running down my face. I hadn't even realized I had started crying.

"Please stop." I whispered. He looked over at me, just as a bullet hit his glasses. I had enough time to see Natasha alive before I was yanked down with the Soldier. He reached up, removed his glasses and looked at me with startling sea green eyes. Eyes that I happened to know look awesome by firelight.

"Oh my god!" I said. This was impossible. I was a history teacher, I knew when he died. That and Steve had become my best friend in the last year. It really was interesting how close two people grew when they both knew a rather shocking secret. I reached out to touch the man in front of me, to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, but before I could he stood up and started shooting again.

He said something in Russian again. It was really weird in the last three seconds to realize that Bucky now spoke Russian. As I stood up, he jumped over the side of the freeway, crushing the hood of the car on which he landed. The men around me grabbed something from their belts and dug the hooks into car hoods.

"You're gonna have to come with me." One of them said. I think I laughed at him. I really wasn't sure exactly what was going on in my head at that moment.

"Yeah, not going to happen." I said, glancing over my shoulder to see if Sam was ok or visible, or alive. I took two steps in the general direction of where he had rolled before an arm clamped around my waist. And then I was flying through the damn air again. Like three times! Really!

I hit the ground actually very shortly and fell to my knees. The man that carried me down pulled the largest machine gun ever off his back and climbed onto the car I was behind while the other two aimed their machines at what probably was a bus. Without warning, all three started shooting. People, civilians like me who were caught up in this fight for some reason, started running and screaming as a body actually came diving out the back window. He rolled, picking his shield up in the process and ducking behind it.

Time slowed down. The recoil from the guns faded to a dull roar and my heart rate increased. He wasn't even bloody. He had smudges on his face but I had seen that before. Steve ducked behind his shield, and his clear blue eyes locked with mine. Then time sped up, he angled his shield and ricocheted the bullets back at the shooters. I watched as both of the men on my sides dropped and Steve turned on the man firing the constant bullets. The one whose legs were right in front of me. He started moving slowly toward me, hiding behind his shield to prevent harm.

I have read that mothers experience an interesting phenomenon when something or someone threatens their children. Science has explained it as a rush of adrenaline, but mothers have explained it as a rush of strength. A burning desire to protect their children at all costs no matter what. I believe that I was experiencing this as Steve was slowly moving toward me; there was a surge of anger at the legs in front of me. I glanced down, noting the shards of glass scattered around my feet. Before I could register what was happening, the man attached to the legs screamed and the gun fire stopped.

"Crista." Steve said, a hand on my shoulder shaking me. "Crista." I blinked up at him, noting the man at my feet. He had a glass shard sticking out of his leg and a large bruise forming on his forehead. "Are you ok?" He asked.

"Me? Why?"

"You're shaking." He said. That was when I noticed the tremors running through my body and realized Steve was not shaking me, I was shaking me. I looked down to my hands, seeing the blood streaming through my fingers.

"Wha…?" I said, bringing my hand up. I could feel the warmth of this blood, the slipperiness and the stickiness as it dripped down my palm.

"You stabbed him." I looked back down at the man at our feet. "Are you ok?" He asked again. I guess I nodded as he looked slightly relived before another gun fire echoed.

"Go I got this." Sam said. Steve nodded slightly, squeezed my shoulder lightly and turned to run off. Toward where Bucky had gone.

"Steve wait." I said. But damn that man was fast. I heard Sam say something to the line of stay put, and my name. If Steve found out about Bucky, he was gonna freeze. There was no way that Steve would fight his best friend, even if there was a gun to his head. "Damn it, I hate running."

Of course I was running in the opposite direction of the crowd. Every sane person was making their way away from the fighting super humans. I was running toward them. And I wasn't exactly sure where they were. The roar of the crowd dulled as I got far enough away from people that I was the only one stupid enough to be near this fight. That was when I heard the metal clunk. Looking to the left was enough to see limbs doing something too fast to register. I sped up, did I mention I hate running, and skidded around the corner to see Steve and Bucky in hand to knife combat. I briefly wondered where his shield was but as I looked just above my head, there it was: stuck in the back of the van.

By the time I looked back, the metal hand was clamped around Steve's throat. Before I could say anything Steve was thrown backwards over the hood of a car. Trying to keep up with them was not a job for a history teacher. Why were my friends so complicated all of a sudden? By the time I had skirted the truck, there was a fist sized dent in the concrete, and Bucky had a knife dug into the van right by Steve's head. Steve dropped to his back, flipping Bucky over him right at my feet.

"Stop." I said, reaching down to the Winter Soldier. "Steve stop." I said. Well that didn't work. I was shoved out of the way as Bucky slammed his knife down only to ram his forearm into Steve's shield. I should name Steve's Shield. Like Moljnir has a name, Steve's shield should too. Suddenly, the mask rolled to my feet and I looked over to see Bucky tuck and spring to his feet and Steve freeze. "Bucky don't." I said, running to the soldier and throwing my arms around his neck.

His hands steadied me as he looked back over my shoulder.

"Don't do this." He glanced down at me, his eyes in a glare.

"Bucky?" Steve said. I looked back over my shoulder to see Steve, complete heartbreak in his eyes as he starred at the man holding me. _I'm sorry_. I mouthed at him, but I had tried to get him to stop.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" I didn't see Steve's reaction as I am sure it was his soul being crushed. I had turned back at the question.

"You are." Bucky looked past me again, and then it happened. Something flashed in Bucky's eyes; recognition, and suddenly there was a little piece of Bucky in his eyes. "Bucky?" I asked, forcing him to look at me. There was again. A slight recognition and I kissed him, happiness flooding through me; Bucky was in there in somewhere.

"Crista move!" Sam yelled. I pulled back in time for Sam to kick Bucky out of the way, Steve was still frozen. Bucky turned, focusing on Steve for a second before pulling out a gun and aiming.

"Bucky don't!" I said, running at him and latching onto his arm.

And then the truck exploded. His metal arm was plastered around my waist as he ran from the explosion. I tried to stop and turn back to Steve. I had just gotten him back, I wasn't going to lose him again. Steve was still staring at us, complete shock on his face and it broke my heart. The van was on fire and Natasha was leaning against a car with Bucky's big gun.

I was lifted against my will and Bucky started running again as I saw the HYDRA men coming up behind Steve. I yelled his name again, struggling against the muscle that was pressing into my stomach. "No, no, no, no! Steve run! Put me down Bucky!" And he listened. But he didn't let me go.

"Stoy!" He barked. Then I was pissed. I turned around and punched him in the right shoulder as hard as I could.

"You don't speak Russian. Stop it! Snap out of this!" And then I slapped him across the face.

"Who is Bucky?" He said again.

"Soldier. Report in." His flesh hand clamped around my wrist as he dragged me to the van. I tried to struggle against him but even before he was the Winter Soldier he was probably stronger than I was.

"Stop." He barked at me, and I froze. Now I had only known Bucky for four days in the 1940's, but from what I had read, and the things Steve had told me, Bucky never yelled at women. "He is dead. Stop trying to save him." He shoved me into the back of the van and crawled in next to me, something scratching my arm. I looked down to see the slats, or scales or whatever the hell they were, of his metal arm dented and sticking up in odd ways.

Steve must have done that. Probably with Roundy. No that was a stupid name. Probably with his shield. I turned to look out the back window toward the burning van, attempting to catch a glimpse of what the helicopter was hovering over. Was Steve really dead? If he was, I had a ticket to Germany to purchase, and if he was gone, he couldn't stop me. I glared at the person next to me, realizing he had buckled me in.

"You're gonna lose." I said.

"What?" He sneered.

"If you don't stop this and come back, I will make sure that you died that day. That none of this will ever happen." I whispered.

"You are a civilian. How do you think you can beat me? Your precious Captain couldn't even do that."

"I know when you were supposed to have died Bucky Barnes, and I am going to make sure that no one finds you after you fall from that train. I will make sure that Steve kills Zola and you will freeze to death." I am sure somewhere, there was some rule about not messing with history. But if Steve was dead, I really couldn't give a shit.


	9. Chapter 9

The bank building was nondescript and pleasantly decorated inside which contrasted to the bitterness I was exuding. Bucky, or Soldier whatever I didn't know what to call him anymore, was still holding my wrist and lead me into a posh elevator that we took it to the basement. Which was slightly dank, dreary, and the lights flickered. He took me into the vault where… just the weirdest looking thing was sitting. There were three men in white lab coats scattered around and they all looked over to the opening of the vault when he walked in.

That was when I realized that we were the only ones who had walked in. All the other people who were in the van had somehow disappeared.

"We need to repair that arm." One of them said, coming over and looking at the metal strips of his forearm. He nodded once as the man speaking glanced over at me. "What is the story with her?" The green eyes glared slightly and the man took a step back.

"She is mine." I huffed at his answer causing him to shoot me a quirked eyebrow.

"Rude." I said. The man in the lab coat shook his head slightly before glancing at the other two.

"Get ready, we will be back." With that, the three lab coats left. The soldier, apparently I had decided on that, looked back briefly before starting to unbuckle his belt. I wasn't exactly sure where this was going, but I didn't know if I wanted to stay and find out. He was watching me closely as he unbuckled the gun holster around his shoulders, laying both on a folding chair. As he was unbuckling the leather vest his arm glitched, sparked and he made a face.

"Do you need some help?" I asked, begrudgingly. He looked at me briefly, his face relaxing into a soft smile that I hadn't expected from him.

"Sure." I moved around to the back, reaching up and unsnapping the straps on the one armed shirt.

"Can I have you clarify something?" He looked over his shoulder at me with one of his eyebrows raised and I took that as a yes. "Why is that I am here? I mean why are you keeping me with you?" I asked sliding the shirt down his shoulders, careful to pull the left arm hole over the jagged pieces sticking out. I moved around to his front and slightly folded the shirt before placing it on the same chair on which he had thrown his belt.

"I could be keeping you to throw him off his game." I stood, looking over at him. I hadn't even thought of that. Steve had been very adamant about me not being involved, and if I wasn't with him, there was a possibility that he would be stupid enough to get distracted about me. But I didn't believe him.

"You said he was dead." A slight laugh came out of him and he nodded. He then sighed and moved to sit on the chair.

"To be honest, something about you seems very familiar to me. As if I knew you." All I could do was stare. He was in there somewhere. "Those eyes are not a normal color, and they are difficult to forget." I blinked, sometimes forgetting that my eyes were more vibrant than most. I moved to kneel in front of him, touching my hands to his knees. "I know you somehow." I nodded at him, feeling the tears form in my eyes.

"What about him?" I asked. Knowing I was referring to Steve, he nodded slightly. Then one of the tears fell as I reached up and touched both sides of his face. "That is very good to hear." He looked into my eyes and for a split second, the confusion on his face an exact mirror of when I said goodbye to him in a forest in the middle of winter 72 years ago.

Stupid lab coat people walked in and screwed up the moment.

"We have to reset Soldier." Bucky stood, yanking the thin undershirt over his head as he did so and… damn. I stood slowly, and I was pretty sure that I had left my jaw on the floor.

"You didn't have those before." I said, reaching out to lightly touch the six pack that was present. My eyes traveled his tan torso coming to rest on the jagged line where metal met flesh. It was raw, raised and angry looking even though it was completely healed. "Oh Bucky." I said, my fingers dancing around the odd meshing. The warm skin under my fingers prickled as a jagged breath left him. I glanced up, only to freeze at the extremely predatory look in his eye. He was hungry, and I wasn't sure I was exactly up to deny him to be honest. Then again, he did just contribute to helping kill my best friend. Damn hormones.

"In the chair please." Bucky stepped back toward what... yeah ok a chair. It looked more like a medieval torture device but I wasn't a scientist so what did I know?

Nat was still bleeding profusely from her left shoulder, but at least Sam had some pressure on it now. She had said it wasn't his fault; none of it was his fault. But Crista was. Crista wouldn't have been here if he hadn't gotten weak and asked her to come to DC. He watched the houses fade to trees as they headed out of the suburbs. He didn't know where they were going, but he trusted Hill. He shouldn't have been weak. He shouldn't have needed Crista to come down.

"Steve, stop with the brooding." Nat said.

"He took her. Twice." He barked back at her. "She wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me."

"Why did you call her?" Nat asked, genuine curiosity lacing her voice.

"I just needed someone to trust." He said. "Sorry guys." But to be honest, he hadn't really trusted Natasha until they met Zola. Sam nodded as Natasha gave him a weird look.

"It's ok. If they had gone after me instead, I would say the same thing." She said shrugging, only to wince slightly. More than she would ever admit to anyone. At least she understood why he needed to call Crista. His Crista. His curly haired, turquois eyed friend whom he had protected since she stumbled into his battle zone 70 years ago.

"We'll get her back Steve." Hill said. He nodded once, once again letting a memory wash over him.

_ The knocking was hurried and frantic as he ran to his door and pried it open. Crista was pounding on the door, her curls were thrown up into a messy bun. She was wrapped in her big coat, her pajama pants under it and her neck was obscured by a hand knit scarf. _

_ "Are you ok?" She asked shoving through the door and slamming it behind her. _

_ "Yeah why?" He asked, watching as her eyes scanned his naked torso. He blushed slightly as Crista starred at him, but it wasn't as if she didn't know what he slept in. _

_ "You called me at two in the morning. Are you dying? Do we need to go to the hospital? What do you mean you're ok?" She rushed, her hands dancing around his waist and he put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down. _

_ "I'm sorry I called. I didn't think that you would be running over here." He said, moving back toward the main living area of his small apartment. _

_ "You sounded…" He turned, waiting for her explanation to finish. "defeated." She said quietly. _

_ "It was just a dream." He said, turning back to the window. Steve understood her attire. While Spring in New York was perfect during the day, the nights were a little chilly, but Crista was always cold when she woke up. Of course the cold somehow calmed him these days. He was always warmer than a regular person, but since his Capsicle time the cold bothered him less. He heard her moving around the apartment, and her presences stopped behind him. _

_ "About Bucky?" She asked. He shook his head. _

_ "No. Those stopped after I came to your school. It was just… disoriented." He said. The dream had been jagged, jumping from one scene in his life to another. From when he was having an extreme asthma attack in his teens, to the Chitauri throwing him out a building window onto a car, to Tony falling from the sky, to battling Schmidt on the plane, to performing in Buffaloe New York, to the plane hitting the ice. That was when he awoke, sweat covered and his hand automatically going to his phone. _

_ "Steve take a seat. Do you have hot chocolate?" He let her lead him to the couch sitting down and starring at her. _

_ "Since the last time you were here and pissed and moaned about how I didn't have any?" _

_ "I didn't piss and moan… I just said that all real adults had hot chocolate in the house." He laughed, the tension in his shoulders relaxing as Crista's personality washed over him. _

_ "It's in the kitchen." _

_ "Do you want some?" She said, moving into his kitchen. "I'll put little marshmallows in it." _

_ "Sure." He said. He had been reunited with Crista for just over two weeks and she already moved around his apartment like she had been there a million times. He remembered when she had cleaned his face for him in 1944, and she was doing it again; taking care of him._

_ "Here." She said sitting next to him. He took the warmed mug with a mountain of marshmallows spilling out and simply held it as Crista took a sip of hers. She sighed, placing her mug on the coffee table and turned to him. "Can I say something that might make you angry?"_

_ "I love it when you start a conversation like that." He said, rolling his eyes but smiling at her. _

_ "Have you thought about talking to someone…"_

_ "No." He said. Natasha had been trying to get him to talk to a SHIELD doctor for months. He didn't understand that. _

_ "Steve, mental health is a recognized branch now. It's ok to need help. You have endured more than any person should." He looked at her, seeing the pleading and pity in her eyes. When she saw his reaction, she wiped the pity and refocused. _

_ "People have dealt with more."_

_ "Wrong." He laughed slightly. "Steve, you changed your entire body, fought Nazis, lost your best friend twice, froze for 70 years and woke up to an entirely new world with aliens. That would throw even the sanest person for a loop." _

_ "So now I'm insane." _

_ "I didn't say that." He laughed slightly. "I'm just saying that it is ok to need some help. Even Super Soldiers need back up." He stared over at this woman and smiled. Just has she had done those days in the Germany, she was somehow reminding him of who he truly was. She had a way of making people see who they were at the core, and reminding them of what they could do. _

_ "I'll look into it." He said. _

_ "Good." She said, leaning over and pressing a kiss to his cheek before laying her head on his shoulder. "You should get some sleep." He rested his cheek against her curls for a second before taking a deep breath. _

_ "Yeah. I'll make sure you get home first." She sat up, frowning at him. _

_ "I'm not leaving you." She said. He felt his face burn at the thought but he did have a couch. "Are you blushing?! Seriously it's not like we haven't slept in the same general vicinity before. Or with each other, in all meanings of the phrase." Steve practically felt the heat coming off his cheeks. "I promise not to put my leg across your hips this time." Then he simply had to laugh. "I have to admit, before I came back I kissed you just to see if it would make you hate yourself." This time, he shoved her playfully, making her laugh slightly. _

_ "Why did you kiss Bucky?" He asked, genuinely curious. Bucky hadn't stopped wondering why she had kissed him, and to be honest, Steve had always been confused as well. Crista blinked over to the coffee table for a second as she tensed. _

_ "Um... because he was hot duh." He had been in the modern times long enough to know that this reason was an actual reason anymore. _

_ "Crista." He said quietly, watching that sadness he remembered come over her face. He understood every flash of devastation that she had had now. She was sad for him, for Bucky, for the commandos. _

_ "I knew." She said, quietly. "I didn't know how many opportunities there would be for him to have a pleasant memory, or a dance with a girl or something."_

_ "There wasn't one. You were his last kiss." Crista looked over at him through lidded eyes. _

_ "That's my claim to fame." She whispered. _

_ "I'm glad you were. Dame like you, he really flipped his lid for you." Crista smiled slightly. _

_ "Come on soldier. Let's get some sleep." _

Guess Bucky still had a flipped lid for Crista. At least he didn't seem to be hurting her.

"We're here." Hill said as the van got put into park.

Bucky hadn't said anything since he sat down. The engineer was working on his arm, when he suddenly sat forward. The HYDRA agents that had shown up glanced back before starring back out the lab door. Then out of nowhere Bucky slammed one of the lab coats away from him and looked over at me. And there he was, Bucky Barnes was struggling to be here but before I could go to him, the agents all had guns trained on him.

The lab coats looked up as the elevator doors opened and an older man walked in. I recognized him; Secretary Pierce. His hands went up to tell people that it was ok, drop the guns. He glanced my way for a split second before sitting down in front of the chair.

"Mission report." He said. Bucky didn't so much as move; just kept staring at the floor. Pierce breathed in, and stood up.

"Mission report now." When Bucky still didn't answer, Pierce backhanded him across the face. I felt myself jerk at the sound, and then I was surprised when Bucky didn't kill the man. Guess he really was in charge; he even had control over Bucky. The slap made him turn to the Senator confused.

"The man on the bridge. Who was he?" He asked, glancing at me briefly and I wished that I could answer him; He is your best friend, you two were closer than brothers and you died for him. If we weren't in a room full of Hydra Agents I would have said all that too.

"You met him earlier this week on another assignment." Pierce said, not to be phased for a second.

"I knew him." Bucky said quietly, looking back at me briefly. Pierce sighed leaning back for a second and trying to find a different direction to attack this from.

"Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century. And I need you to do it one more time. Society is at a tipping point between order and chaos and tomorrow morning we are going to give it a push. But if you don't do your part I can't do mine, and hydra is going to give the world the freedom it deserves." I snorted, causing everyone in the room to look at me but I didn't really care. That was the biggest load of bull shit I had ever heard. During the speech, Bucky's face had changed and hardened almost as if he was trying to remind himself of all the "good" he had done in the past. He finally looked up at Pierce again.

"But I knew him." He said, and it broke my heart. This Senator was telling him to kill someone that he knew, possibly well and he didn't seem to have a choice.

"Prep him." He said, eyeing me again.

"But he's been out of cryo freeze too long." One of the white coats said.

"Then wipe him and start over." He said. What the hell did wipe him mean? I watched as Bucky took two deep breaths and opened his mouth as something as inserted, then he leaned back wards, a hard look on his face. "Who is this?" Pierce asked as this was happening.

"I'm…" I glanced at Bucky for a second. "his." I motioned. Pierced looked back as well before grabbing my elbow.

"Then you might not want to see this." He directed me out of the vault just as Bucky started screaming.

"Bucky!" I turned, and I caught a glimpse of him leaned back in the chair. Whirring was in the air as Pierce forced me back and away from the door. "What are you doing to him?" I asked.

"He was starting to remember. I can't have that." I tore my elbow from his grasp and turned to him.

"You are an asshole." I said. There was a lot more that I wanted to do to this man but to be frank… I knew there was room full of men with guns ready to come to his defense.

"You don't even know me."

"I know you're too chicken to face Captain America yourself. Or tell the world that you're really HYDRA. What would America do to you if they found out that you were trying to take their freedom? I thought you were a democrat."

"So you know Rogers." I quickly mentally searched through my last sentences trying to find where I had said that. "I am assuming you learned his real name through Captain Rogers." Oh crap, I called him Bucky.

"I'm a history teacher. I know about Sargent James Barnes."

"Apparently not enough. You see, Barnes really is dead." He said.

"No he isn't." Anger flashed through his eyes for a brief second before his politician face was back in place. "Otherwise you wouldn't have to wipe him." I noticed that the screaming had stopped, but I didn't know what was going to happen when he walked out of that vault. "I voted for you." I said, disgusted.

"You are also very lucky that Soldier wants you alive, I am assuming. Otherwise, I would have killed you already."

"Why? Because I am a threat? I am a public high school history teacher from New York. I mean nothing to you. Nothing I can do can harm you."

"Except you seem to know about HYDRA. Unless of course you are looking for a job." I glared at him. "Apparently not."

"Who is going to believe me?" Before he could answer his phone rang. "You get that. I'm leaving."

"Hold on." Pierce barked, turning back to me. "Where are you going?"

"I have a plane to catch." I said, eyeing the elevator.

"What?" He barked loudly into the phone. "How exactly did they escape?" Then I paused, waiting to see about what he was speaking. "They cut a hole through the floor of the van? Just like Fury?" Yup. That was them. Steve had escaped which means he wasn't dead. I should probably go to Germany anyway, but he would get really mad if I did that.

I jumped when the hand latched onto my elbow, turning to see a soldier. I guess he was my soldier, but I wasn't entirely thrilled to see him. The no shirt helped, but the glare was more powerful than those abs… or not. My eyes had drifted scanning his whole torso again. Pierce hung up the phone and turned to the two of us. Bucky was gone again.

"You better complete this mission Soldier. I want Rogers dead." Pierce said.

"You're afraid of a man with a shield?" I asked, feeling the hand tighten slightly. I shook him off and glared right back. Even if he wanted to keep me alive, he should damn well know that I wasn't about to let a man push me around.

"That man could muck up my plans. So sure, right down to my socks." Pierce said. "Any means necessary soldier." With that he was gone. I looked back up to that gorgeous face, his sea green eyes locking with mine. He was so beautiful with his dark lashes making those eyes pop. Those hard, cold eyes. I was right. Bucky was gone again.


	10. Chapter 10

The SHIELD headquarters was a rather impressive building. What had Natasha called it? The Triskele? Something like that, whatever. Of course I only saw the outside in the dark. The Soldier had brought me straight here after getting dressed in the bank vault and I was currently falling asleep on a computer desk. He was watching a screen that showed three air craft carriers. Or… helicarriers as Steve called them. Bucky hadn't said anything since his "wipe" and we had been in this room for six hours. My butt was numb from sitting so long.

I guess I had dosed off because the light brush of fingers startled me. I jerked, sitting up and looking around. He was sitting in a chair next to me as if he had been watching me sleep… weird. He reached out again, brushing the hair off my face and behind my ear. It was almost pleasant… if he hadn't been waiting to kill our best friend. I realized how cold it was when his warm hand found my cheek, and I let my eyes close.

"I wish you wouldn't do this." His fingers faltered slightly behind my ear and I opened my eyes to look at his.

"I have orders." Of course those were the first words he spoke. I reached up, clasping his hand in mine and brought it down. I'm not sure why I expected his hands to be cold, maybe it was the whole "Winter" thing, but he was almost as warm as Steve and I found my fingers tracing the veins on the back of his right hand. His metal one was resting on the back of my chair.

"Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, this is Steve Rogers." I looked up breaking eye contact as Steve's voice came pouring out of P.A. system.

"Steve." I said smiling. What the hell was he doing here? The moment between Bucky and I was officially over as his snapped back to the hellicarrier feed leaving my hand resting on thin air where his hand been a split second before.

"You've heard a lot about me over the last few days. Some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time to tell the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was. It's been taken over by HYDRA." The phone next me to rang as Bucky answered it.

"Da?" He said, interrupting my ability to hear Steve. He always was the one to run into the place where people were trying to kill him.

"They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want. Absolute control. They shot Nick Fury."

"Da." The phone slammed down and he grabbed my arm.

"Where are we going?" I asked trying to yank my arm out of his grasp, receiving nothing but a confused look in return. "Please don't do this. You are so much stronger than Pierce, you don't have to listen to him." He paused for only a second before shoving the door open and dragging me down a hallway.

"I know I'm asking a lot. But the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing…" And then Bucky shoved me through a door into a huge room with the three helicarriers.

"Whoa." He dragged me by the arm to a set of stairs before pushing me up before him. Guess I got to fly today.

The rumble of the engines shook through the soles of my shoes as Bucky brought me into a corner.

"Stay here." He said looking out to the deck. He made a move to leave but I grabbed his arm, the chill of the metal against my palms.

"Wait. Stay here, with me please." I said, tugging on him. Oddly enough he turned back. "Please." I said. For a split second that predatory look from the day before was in his eyes. He slammed me against the side of whatever I was next to, his hands on either side of my face. "Stay with me." I whispered. He growled slightly, his face getting closer to mine every second. "Please." I linked my hands around his neck. As my hands brushing his neck, his eyes flashed. A gentlemen from the 1940's. I pressed my lips to his, breathing in his scent and feeling him slam his body move against mine.

"We are the only air support Captain Rogers has." His head turned, breaking the kiss and leaving my slightly breathless. Then he was gone, pulling his gun around to the front as he went.

"No!" Dammit. Steve had to be on this boat somewhere, but to be honest, the sun was reflecting off the tarmac, slightly blinding me and I had no idea what this thing was. I could be lost for hours on this thing. A huge explosion occurred and I screamed, dropping to floor covering my ears. I didn't even want to know what he was doing out there. I screamed again as debris started falling and I hoped to god it was pieces of metal and not man. Five minutes I sat there, screams snaking their way through my hands to force their way into my ears, the explosions rocking the whole ship. Then a hand was on my shoulder and I screamed louder.

"BUCKY!" I hoped he could hear me, to stop whoever this was. I was kicking, scratching and flailing until I was slammed back up against the side of the thing from earlier.

"I won't hurt you." I opened my eyes, just registering the cool metal under my right hand. He grabbed my wrist and dragged me out onto the tarmac without giving me a second to catch my breath.

"Oh my god." I said stopping, feeling the tears spring to my eyes. Bodies littered the run way. One plane was on fire, one was smoking from the cargo hold and one was simply destroyed. Uncountable bodies were between me and wherever the soldier was taking me. He had taken out four planes in five minutes. "Let me go." I said, yanking on my wrist. He turned, confused apparently. Really! What a date, let me show the bodies of the men I just killed three minutes ago.

"I won't hurt you." He said again, tugging me toward him. I stumbled over a fallen body, tears blurring my vision. He lifted me onto the wing of a plane and I screamed. The pilot was slumped over, bleeding from a bullet to the head. "Get in."

"Are you crazy! You just killed 20 people in three minutes and you expect me to get into a seat with a dead guy?" The confusion was back. He snapped the window off the side of the plane, tossing it aside and then doing the same with the lifeless body, tossing it onto the pile on the ship. "You are insane. I'm not getting in that plane." His hand clamped onto my elbow and he took a step toward me.

"Now." He said, shoving me in. I tried to catch myself on the control panel, only to be met with slippery blood, still warm from being safe inside a body. He crawled over the top, yanking the second window off and climbing in. He started the plane and directed it toward the helicarrier highest in the air.

If I had not been a coward I would have jumped. They would have found my broken little body in the Potomac somewhere. Steve would be really mad. And like I said, I was a coward. I wasn't brave enough to take the leap. I wasn't brave enough to sacrifice my life to get away from the Soldier. To be honest, a part of me really wanted to know if I could get Bucky back. The plane bumped down onto the tarmac and he crawled out, hoping over the top to help me out of the seat.

"I can just stay here." I said. He shook his head, hoping down from the wing and holding his arms up. I slipped down, his fingers clamping around my waist as he gently set me on my feet. "I don't get this. I don't understand how you can kill people ruthlessly, without a second thought and then turn around and be so gentle with me." I said.

"You are mine." He said. "They are not. Stay here." He disappeared again through the maze of cargo stacks on the tarmac. Apparently my job today was "stay put while I go kill a bunch of people and then love me when I get back". Like that was going to happen. I heard the scream but it was faint. And it wasn't in pain. It was more like energy exertion. I glanced over, noting how close I was to the side of the tarmac, and Sam came shooting up from below. Steve landed on his feet like nothing was wrong.

"Steve!" I said and then I was running, launching myself around him.

"Crista?" He asked, shocked as he caught me. The tears started pouring again as his arm latched around my waist, pulling me against the bugles of his utility belt.

"He said you were dead, and then I heard you this morning." I said pulling back. "I'm never coming when you call me again." I said looking him in the eyes. He laughed slightly, glancing at Sam as he set me on my feet.

"I think that's fair." He reached up, his fingers brushing my hair behind my ear. Then he was gone, flying over the side.

"Steve!" I yelled, running after him only to clotheslines around the waist.

"Steve!" Sam yelled, running as well, wings extending. I was thrown to the side as the Soldier took out Sam's suit in about thirty seconds.

"Sam!" I said, rushing back over to the edge as he fell. The soldier tried to stop me again, but I shook him off, firmly planting my hands on the railing. That seemed to get through to him that I wasn't going to jump. I saw Sam's shute open just in time and relaxed slightly. A growl whipped through the air, different from the one earlier. Earlier he was predatory and lustful. This one was angry. I glanced at him, and followed his eye line down. Leaning over the edge just a little further I got the glimpse of red, white and blue and smiled; Steve was still on board.

This time, instead of tugging me, the Soldier flat out threw me over his shoulder. I grunted at the impact as the wind was knocked out of me.

"Where are we going?" I asked. He wouldn't answer. "I can walk by myself. You just don't know that because you don't ask nicely. Haven't you ever heard of the word please?" He was ignoring me. Everything I said. The shocking darkness of the hallway compared to outside blinded me for a second as my pupils adjusted. I wondered briefly if I could kick him hard enough in the balls to incapacitate him for a while, but I would get lost on this second carrier just as much as on the first one. I gave up then, propping my elbow against his back and putting my chin on my palm. I even stopped trying to keep track. Left, left, right, down a stair case, right, right, slight left or something I don't remember. Through one last door and it got brighter again. He put me down and we were in a large glass dome. "What is this place?" I simply got a look in return.

His cool metal fingers snaked around my wrist again and I rolled my eyes. I can't believe I kissed him; but as I looked into his eyes… yes I could. Damn he was gorgeous. A different metal clamped around my wrist. I looked down in time to see him close the other cuff around the metals handrails.

"Handcuffs? I'm not into kink dude." I said as he stood back up straight. "Seriously though?" I asked, jingling the bracelets.

"I said stay put. This time you will." He moved then, to stand at one end of a metal bridge hat lead to the outside of the dome.

"Asshole." I said quietly. I looked over to the large cylinder in the middle of the room as I heard a door close. The gait that followed was heavy and staccato. I looked up in time for Steve to come to a stop. How is that he could fall off the top of this boat, and find his way back here crawling around the outside and still look fresh and perfect. I glanced over at the Soldier, tension filling the air has the friends had a stare down.

"You ok?" He asked, glancing at me for a split second.

"Physically." Steve's attention shifted back to Bucky.

"People are gonna die Buck. I can't let that happen." He looked heartbroken again.

"He's not Bucky." I said with as much venom in my voice as I could. The Soldier glanced over his shoulder at me and I glared.

"Please don't make me do this." Steve said, calling attention back to him. I watched his face switch, harden, and suddenly Captain America was with us. "Get down Crista." He said. I dropped as his shield came flying at the Soldier.

"Stop throwing that thing in my direction." I yelled over the fighting but I was sure neither of them heard me. Especially over the gun shots, bullets ricocheting off the shield three in a row. Steve grunted slightly and I looked over to see him bleeding from the left side of his ribcage. I ducked my head into the crook of my elbow as the fight continued. The grunting stopped and I glanced over to see Steve pressing buttons on the cylinder. "Steve!" He turned at my warning, Bucky's fist hitting his shield. Then something happened and Steve jumped over the hand rail. The Soldier went to follow him bbut I reached out, grabbing his wrist.

He turned to look at me, yanking his hand out of my grasp.

"Wait stop." I said, linking my free arm around his neck. "Stay here. Stay with me." Hey it kind of worked once. "I'm um… afraid of him, keep me safe." The brush of my fingers against his skin and he turned, his eyes shifting. "Stay with me." I said, pulling him closer. "Please." I think I found it. Every time I touched him, skin to skin contact and Bucky would fight to get out. I kissed him again, feeling his metal arm secure around my waist.

"Crista?" Steve asked, breaking the Soldier's concentration on me and bringing it back to him. Bucky leaped over the handrail.

"Dammit Steve!" I said. The two super humans collided and went toppling to the ground. I couldn't see what was happening, but I heard the grunting, the contact of fists on metal and flesh. Steve screamed again at one point and I tried to figure out what was happening. There were more grunts, metal hitting metal.

"Drop it. Drop it." Steve said. I jumped as far as the handcuffs would let me but I couldn't see anything down there. Then Bucky screamed.

"They are gonna kill each other." I said to myself. When they did I would be stuck on this freaking boat all alone. Then suddenly, it went quiet for a split second before Steve was grunting.

"Crista." I turned, seeing him climbing back up the slope beneath us. I was handcuffed to a rail what did he want me to do? Then another gun shot went off and he fell.

"Steve!" I said ducking through the rail and extending an arm. The handcuffs kept me anchored and I stretched my hand out. "Take my hand." I said, as another gun shot rang out. I screamed as Steve's hand jerked. He was favoring his left leg. His hand linked with mine and I tried to start to pull. He helped some, Jesus he was really heavy. "Come on." I said. I got him up through the handrail and he stood at the cylinder again.

"Stand by. Charlie.." Gun fire. Steve jerked and fell to the ground, bleeding through the front of his uniform.

"STEVE!" I screamed. The handcuffs let me get next to him but just barely.

"Put this… in the empty slot." He breathed, struggling. He handed me a flat almost see-through thing and I looked up, seeing the empty slot. I stood, reaching through my fingertips. I could just get it. Then the there was a jerk and my handcuffs loosened. Steve had snapped the cuff chain in his hand. I clicked the floppy disc thing into place.

"Charlie lock." Steve said into his wrist and I fell to his side, pressing my hand to his stomach. He screamed again. "Fire now." I looked up to his eyes, and then things clicked. The helicarriers were going to fire at each other. We were going to die. "Do it!" He said, looking at me. "Do it now." I felt the tears spill down my cheeks as his hand pressed over mine.

"You're gonna be fine." I said through the tears, sniffing in.

"Crista." He said, looking up at me. "You have to get out of here." He glanced out the dome to the other carriers. Their guns were shifting.

"I can't." I said, putting more pressure against his stomach. His blood was pouring out over our linked hands, but I think it was starting to slow.

"Yes you can Crista. Go." He said, starting to push my hand away.

"No Steve. That fall will kill me." I said, looking down through the bottom of the dome to the Potomac waiting below. The whole ship shook, throwing me off balance a bit. But Steve had frozen, and I looked up into his blue eyes. He was devastated; he looked like he was about to shatter.

"I'm so sorry Crista." He whispered. I shook my head, reapplying pressure to the bullet wound.

"It's ok." Then he shook his head, eyes filling with tears. "Steve it's ok." I reached up, brushing my fingers down the exposed skin of his cheek, leaving a thin trail of blood. "It's ok." And as I repeated it, trying to make Steve feel better, I realized it was ok. I was ok, if Steve lived. I was brave enough to give up my life so Steve could live.

"I never wanted you to get involved in this part of my life." He stuttered. "I'm so…" I kissed him then, just to shut him up. The whole place lurched again, causing debris to start falling. We slide into the handrail, catching ourselves on it as we heard a huge crash and Bucky scream. Steve looked over the rail and I copied him; Bucky was lying under a huge piece of metal scaffolding, trapped. I also caught a glimpse of the other two carriers, all three still firing on one another. As I glanced at Steve, I noticed him getting ready to jump the rail.

"Steve, wait."

"I'm not going to let him die Crista." He said, slipping beneath the rails and sliding down.

"Gah, dammit." I said, following him. "You are one stubborn ass Rogers." I said as I came to a stop next to him. The drop to the floor was about ten feet; that was going to jar me when I landed.

"I've got you Crista." Three bullet wounds, a stabbed shoulder and a slice down his face and he was still prepared to catch me. I shook my head and slide off the side landing in Steve's hands as he place my on feet just in time for another earthquake. "We have to get this off him." He said.

"You know he wouldn't do this for you right now." I said, glancing in Bucky's general direction.

"He will again." I rolled my eyes. Granted I thought I could get Bucky back too, but I'm not sure I would risk my life for him this way. I moved over to where he was laying, his shocked wide eyes looking at Steve through his hair.

"You don't deserve him." I said kneeling down over his head. "You lift I pull." I said to Steve who nodded as he linked his arms around the thing. And it was heavy. Even Captain America was having a problem with it. He got it up enough that Bucky started moving and I linked my hands under his arms, pulling straight back. "God you are heavy too." I said, falling backwards as I got him out from under the thing. I lay down for a second, feeling Bucky's head come to rest on my sternum.

"You know me." Steve said, causing Bucky to stand.

"Really!" I said, standing and moving in between them. "He just saved your ass and you are still going to fight him? You know him." I said, trying to recall the moment he had from the bank vault the day before.

"No I don't." He screamed, shoving me out of the way. I hit the floor and the impact knocked the wind out of me.

"Bucky. You've known me your whole life." I noticed that the carrier was going down at a rather steep angle. We were going to crash into the river. "Your name is James Buchanan Barnes…"

"Shut up." I heard the thunk of a punch and I turned, seeing Steve staggering backward.

"I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend." He said, taking off his helmet, which dropped through the floor.

"You're my mission." Bucky said, launching at him.

"NO!" I flung myself toward the pair. Steve had gone down, really not fighting back as the metal arm punched him repeatedly in the face. I got there, catching the arm in a back pull. "Stop it. Steve fight back!" I screamed as the Soldier yanked his arm out of mine to deliver another blow.

"You're…" punch, "…my…" punch, "…mission."

"Stop it!" I screamed again, latching onto his arm one more time. I looked down, and I could barely recognize my best friend. He had a black eye forming and the right side of his face was swollen. The cut over his lip was bleeding fresh and his eyes were half closed. "Steve."

"Then finish it."

"Steve no." I cried, feeling the new tears forming.

"Because I'm with you to the end of the line." He muttered. Bucky froze, he had been struggling against my hold again, but at Steve's sentence he froze. And then something fell, shattering the glass and taking Steve with it. And Bucky. And me.

The wind knocked out of me again as Bucky screamed. His human arm was around my waist and I glanced up to see his metal one holding onto the metal frame of the dome. I look backed down, watching in slow motion as Steve kept getting further and further away. He wasn't supposed to die.

"Steve!" Again with the names, like it would help him right now. I shifted reaching up and snaking my hands around Bucky's neck. His heart rate was increased, I could feel the pulse point against my forearm.

"I know him." He whispered. I snapped back, seeing the look on his face. I nodded.

"Yeah you do." I said, bringing our noses together.

"I have to save him." He said. I glanced down again. This fall probably wouldn't kill me, but the ship falling on me would.

"Go. I can't make that fall." I said. Easier to leave it that way. His eyes snapped back to mine and his head shook.

"I am not going to let you get hurt." He said, and before he could explain he let go. Fucking flying through the air, why the hell do people think this is fun, because it's not. He had shifted his body to take the impact of the water, his arms tightly around my waist pressing me into his chest. "Take a deep breath." His said, and I did. Only to hit the water and have the wind knocked out of me yet again. I didn't need to breath, it's cool. Breathing is overrated. This time, I got to see what the breath knocked out of me looked like as the giant air bubble escaped my mouth. I opened my eyes into the murky water to see Steve about eight feet down and still sinking. Bucky shoved me upward and I broke the surface, gasping for air. I started treading water, suddenly aware that I was wearing a white shirt; great. I looked up, seeing the ship still heading for the river and part of it was going to land where we were.

Bucky broke the surface a few feet from me, in pain. I couldn't figure that out one. His metal arm came up, latched around Steve's shield holster. I cried out happily at the sight of them, swimming over to them.

"Get to the shore." He said. I looked left and started swimming, Bucky following dragging Steve with him. The swim was short, probably three minutes and my feet touched solid floor.

"Here let me help." I said turning to grab Steve's other strap. Bucky calmly walked onto shore, dragging an unconscious Captain America with him. Once we were all out, Bucky laid him on the ground and I fell, checking the wound on his stomach. It was still bleeding, but not like it had been before. "We need to get him to a hospital." I said. When Bucky didn't answer I glanced up to see him walking away. "Hey!" I said, standing and leaping over Steve's prone form. "Where are you going, I can't move him." I said sliding into his path.

"I have to figure some things out." He said, reaching up and pushing the water plastered hair off my face. As I looked into those eyes I saw the struggle; the soldier and Bucky were fighting to have control over the body. The perfect soldier, who follows orders and does whatever is necessary is complete his mission, and the good man who still follows orders, but knows when they are wrong. One with obedience, and one with morality. This time, I brushed the hair off his face, letting my fingers skim his cheek, hoping that would help. Then I just had to hug him.

Oddly that metal arm was comforting around my back as it pressed me closer to him. I buried my face into his wet neck and breathed a few breathes.

"When you want to know the whole truth, find me. I will tell you everything." I whispered. I felt him nod in response and I pulled back to look into his face. "Crista Fraiser, New York, New York." He nodded again and that soft smile from the day before came back onto his face. The smile that told me there was good in him. He was worth saving; Steve never forgot that. I pressed onto my toes, lips locking with his, his scruff scratching my chin. "Whenever you want to know." Bucky nodded again, glancing over his shoulder.

"Save him." He said and he walked away. His metal fingers trailed down my arm, linking fingers briefly but as long as we could until he was out of reach.

I slid down next to Steve, a rock catching through my jeans as I pressed my hands onto his wound. I didn't know where Bucky had put my phone, but even if I had still had it, it wasn't water proof. How the hell was I going to get him to a hospital? I looked up into his battered swollen face and noticed the small blue thing poking out of his ear. I glanced around, like someone would be watching, and yanked the thing out of his ear and put it into mine.

"Steve's not responding." A woman said.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Crista?" Natasha said.

"Natasha help." I said, looking around like she was going to pop out of the woods magically.

"We can't hear you very well, talk into the wrist mic." She said.

"What the hell is a wrist mic." I thought out loud. Then I remembered, Steve was talking into his wrist before the gun fire started. I pulled up his right hand, threading my fingers through is and talking in the general direction of his wrist; and I felt like an idiot. "Better?"

"Yes, much. Where are you?" Natasha asked. There were at least three other people who also had access as I heard them all talking, but I only recognized Sam's voice.

"Steve and I are on the river bank. About, a quarter of a mile south of the triskele thing, on the other bank." Did that make any sense at all? "Steve's unconscious." I said, and I couldn't fight back the tears anymore. My best friend could die in front of my face and I would be helpless to stop it.

"Crista listen. He is going to be fine." Natasha said.

"Bucky beat him up. He's been shot and stabbed and we fell out of the helicarrier." And now I was simply rambling. I clutched his hand tighter, bring it to my face. He was colder than he should be. Steve was always warm, even in the middle of a snowy night in a camp in Germany, he was warm. "He's getting colder Nat." I said.

"We will be there soon. Fury is calling 911 now, but everyone is looking for him."

"I got a visual." A deep voice said and that was when I heard the helicopter. I glanced up, seeing the black thing hovering over the water.

"We see you."

"Please save him." I said. How is that I, a normal human being with nothing special about her, was the one who survived a fucking plane crash, while Captain America, who froze for 70 years was unconscious.

"I'm going down there." Sam said. The helicopter was about ten feet in the air, the blades making ripple effects on the surface when Sam jumped. I looked back at Steve, wiping the blood from his cut. And then Sam was there hugging me.

"He's going to be fine Crista. I promise." I sat there, crying onto Sam's shoulder, clinging to Steve's hand while Natasha was giving orders to someone. I don't know how long it took for the sirens to come but they did. They were there.

**AN: Shout out to LadyCinnia for following! I am so excited, the story is finished. I have more Crista shenanigans planned! I love that so many people are following this story. If there is something you would like to see happen, or just want to say how awesomely sarcastic Crista is, write a review! I answer all of them and they make my heart smile! **


	11. Chapter 11

It was bright, but he was very comfortable. His eyes cracked opened to a hospital room. God he hoped he was still in 2014. Last time he woke up in a strange hospital his life got turned upside down. Music was playing and his eyes found the iPod sitting in the portable speakers. He turned his head, noting Sam in the chair next to him. He relaxed slightly; Sam was here so he couldn't have been out that long right?

"On your left." He said jokingly. He cracked his eyes back open to see Sam smile.

"Welcome back." The pilot said, closing his magazine.

"How long have I been out?"

"About six hours. Recovering from surgery and all." He said. Steve shifted, feeling the shooting pain through the back of his leg, his stomach and his ribs. Bullet wounds… fantastic. But the pain subsided quickly. Something was tugging at his lip and his right shoulder ached a little. A stab wound, and a knife cut. Bucky sure did a number on him. Maybe Crista was right, he should have at least defended himself. Crista. He was alert in a second, sitting up and ignoring the pain.

"Where is Crista?" He asked, dreading the answer. Last he remembered she was saying she was going to die. Did he kill his best friend? Did he bring her into a situation she couldn't survive? Sam put a hand on his shoulder, pressing him back gently and motioning to the other side of the bed.

His breathing relaxed as he saw Crista curled up, asleep in the chair on the other side of his bed.

"She's been out for about two hours. I guess the Soldier didn't let her sleep last night." Sam informed him. Steve reached over, needing at least to feel her breathing, and touched her arm. She stirred at the touch, turquois eyes cracking open. They locked with his for a split second before she was out of the chair.

He had never thought that kissing a dame would be painful, but as Crista was lying on top of him, pressing kisses to anything she should come in contact with, the reaction of his stitches stung.

"Don't…." kiss, "You ever…", mouth kiss, "Do that again!" He was practically laughing and would have been if Crista would let him breath. "If someone is trying to kill you, you try and kill them right back do you understand?" She demanded. He had never seen Crista this mad before, but it was rather entertaining. She was leaning on her elbows, which were on his chest and glaring down him, her hair wild from sleeping in a chair and it hung around her head like a halo.

"I understand." He said, reaching up gently touching her waist.

"This isn't a laughing matter Steven Grant Rogers. Don't ever! Ever again!" She was practically yelling by the end, and he knew he was in trouble when she used his whole name.

"The next time someone tries to kill me, I will try and kill them right back." He said quietly, watching her relax. Instead of crawling off him like he thought she would, she simply moved her elbows, splaying across him with her head on his uninjured shoulder. Right when he relaxed under Crista's weight, the doors opened admitting three armed guards with guns drawn and a small nurse. Steve realized that his heart rate had spiked and they were probably responding to that. Crista's head came up, looking over her shoulder at the three guns.

"Oh fuck off." She said, before lying back down. That was the thing with Crista, she could always make him laugh. Steve got his hands up as much as he could.

"It's fine guys." He said, smiling as they left the room.

"Ma'am you can't be on there with him." Steve's smile faded as Crista growled… Crista doesn't growl. She twisted around, starring at the nurse who had come in.

"First of all, I am not a ma'am. Second, if you want me off this bed you are going to have to kill me because I am not leaving this bed until he does. Third, why does nobody ask nicely anymore?" She said, flopping back down, jarring his stomach wound.

"She's fine." Steve said to the nurse, who begrudgingly nodded and left the room.

"I'm going to go and calm the waters out there. Explain the whole clinging to the Captain thing." Sam said, leaving Steve alone with Crista, who was shaking.

"Hey. Are you ok?" She nodded. "Crista."

"Don't die on my Steve." She said, pulling back so she could look in his face. Tears were swimming in her eyes and guilt slammed through him like one of Bucky's bullets.

"I didn't." She shook her head, dismissing his attempt at humor.

"I don't like it when you bleed. Don't do that anymore." This time he had to laugh, reaching to move her so she was lying next to him instead of on him. She curled up to his left side, snuggling into his shoulder again and they fell into their comfortable silence. From the outside, he was sure that he and Crista looked like more than they were. Crista was just touchy, so she kissed him a lot when she was happy. She actually kissed people a lot in general.

"Hey Crista can I ask you about something?" He said, looking down at her curls as she nodded yes. "Why did you kiss him?" It was very reminiscent of the conversation in his apartment, but this time, he could feel tension throughout his body. She looked up at him eyes scanning his face for a second before she jerked.

"Are you jealous?" She asked, leaning away from him. "Cause last time I kissed him you were happy."

"I'm not jealous." He said, despite the many times he had kissed her and enjoyed it. "He was just… trying to kill me this time." He said.

"That probably would have been a shock. Sorry." She said. He shook his head to let her know she didn't need to apologize, waiting for her to further answer the question. "Um… I realized that when I touch him, when I touch his skin, it's like Bucky starts fighting. I can see the struggle in his eyes. The battle between who gets control over the body, Bucky or the Soldier. Bucky always fought harder when I touched him, hardest when I kissed him. But then someone would say your name, or you would talk and the Soldier would come crashing to the fore front, needing to complete his mission." Steve found himself rubbing her arm. He knew Bucky was in there. "He is the one who saved us though. I wouldn't have survived that fall." She said, nestling closer to him again.

"How did you?" He asked, the words coming out tight. He should have been the one to keep her alive.

"He took the hit of the water on his back. He wasn't going to let anything hurt me." She said. Bucky had always liked Crista, from the second she whispered his name in the snow covered forest. Maybe she was what he needed to get back in control.

"Why?" He asked curiously. She took a deep breath.

"Well, he kept saying I was his. He wouldn't let anyone hurt me, because I was his. Even after they wiped his memory."

"Wiped his memory?" Steve asked, suddenly realizing why Bucky didn't know him. Bucky hadn't forgotten over time, his memories had been locked away.

"Yeah. After the fight on the street, he said that you were familiar. That he knew you." Steve shook his head at the door as the nurse peaked in; he was going to have to get this heart monitor off if someone was going to burst in every time his heart rate increased. Bucky knew him. "That he knew me. But when they wiped him, he didn't know you anymore. But he still protected me. He killed 20 people in three minutes and then made sure that I was buckled into the plane before liftoff. It was very confusing." Steve nodded. Bucky was in there, and he was fighting to get back. Fighting to have control; to remember.

"He was wrong though." Steve said, looking down at Crista.

"Wrong how?" She asked.

"You're mine." He smiled. She laughed, placing her head on his shoulder again.

"Always Rogers." She whispered. He gave her a squeeze before they fell back into silence and before long, Crista was asleep next to him.

When he awoke the next morning, Crista was still asleep on his shoulder. He reached across and brushed some hair off her face, and he realized, there was no pain in his shoulder. He shifted around, noticing no pain in the other wounds, and he was really itchy. A nurse came through the door just then, a small smile on her face as she glanced at Crista.

"How do you feel this morning Captain Rogers?" She asked. Apparently Sam had explained Crista being on the helicarrier with Steve and the hospital staff stopped making her do things she didn't want to do; like vacate his bed.

"Fine. These are itching a bit." He said, motioning to the stitches on his face.

"Just scratch 'em Steve." Crista mumbled, making him smile.

"Don't scratch them." The nurse said, coming over and pressing Crista's hair to her head so she could look at the cut on his face. "Oh wow. That's amazing." She said. She walked around the bed, lifting the blanket and pulling up his hospital gown. "These are ready too." She mumbled. "You really do heal fast." The nurse smiled up at him and he nodded, completely uncomfortable with a strange women starring at his abs while he was wearing nothing but a hospital gown.

"What?" Crista mumbled, blinking her eyes open.

"Captain Roger's stitches look ready to come out. If that is the case, we can probably discharge you this afternoon." The nurse explain as Crista arched her back to stretch.

"Cool. Who's the doctor?"

"I'll go get her." The nurse said. As she left the room Nat breezed in with a bag.

"Hey handsome."

"Hi Natasha." Crista said, causing the red head to smile.

"Brought the clothes you left in the cave." Nat said, dropping the bag on the floor as she plopped herself into Sam's chair.

"How are you doing?" He asked, shifting to sit up.

"Steve use the bed function." Crista said, reaching over him and pressing the button to raise the head of the bed up. New-fangled hospital beds and pushy best friends, he almost wanted to be unconscious again. Nat was laughing to herself in the corner, either at him or Crista and he didn't really want to find out.

"I'm fine. Those widow stings are a bitch though." She said, absentmindedly rubbing her right hand. He nodded, thankfully she had never thrown of those at him. "What's the verdict here?" She asked, eyeing the hospital room.

"I think I get out today." Crista's eyes rolled. "What?"

"Three bullet wounds, a slice to the face, a stabbed shoulder and your right eye was swollen closed and you walk out of the hospital the next damn day." She said, twisting around so a serious of cracks went up her back.

"Must be nice." Nat said, testing her shoulder.

"Sorry. How does that feel?" He asked, knowing that she wasn't entirely happy with having been shot, but it wasn't the first time and he would bet his life that it wouldn't be the last.

"It's fine. He's done worse." She said tucking her feet under her. Crista shifted uncomfortably next to him. If what she told him about Bucky was true, she had a stronger connection to him than anyone in the room wanted. The doctor came in then, causing Nat to raise an eyebrow.

"Let's take a look at those stitches Captain." Crista begrudgingly got out of bed so the doctor could check the stitches on his ribs, nodding. Natasha moved around the bed to stand next to Crista when the doctor wanted to check the stitches on his leg because he had to roll onto his side. He was also uncomfortable that his doctor was a woman, but that was just because he was completely exposed to another strange woman. Crista and Natasha were whispering a conversation in the corner and he got the feeling they were talking about his penis again. He sighed, watching his two friends as they started giggling. He never should have introduced them.

Later that afternoon, Steve and I pulled up to the outside of his apartment building. Steve had turned bright red when Nat had pulled his underwear out of the bag she brought with her, but that just caused the two of us to laugh harder. After my first outburst the hospital staff had been pretty accommodating, realizing that I wasn't going anywhere where I couldn't physically see Steve. I was still angry with him over the whole "not going to fight you" thing but he was alive, and that is what mattered. The hospital had let Steve drive us home seeing as I had no idea where I was going. Nat had somehow gotten his bike to the hospital and I don't know how she got out of there, but it was Nat so I didn't worry about it. He also decided to take the stairs, and I frowned after him. I mean, there was a perfectly functional elevator right there!

"So is this the nurse?" I asked, motioning with my head toward the door just outside the one into which he had inserted a key. Steve looked over at the door, a hard look at his face that faded after a split second.

"Yeah." He said. Before walking through the door. Wonder what that meant.

His apartment was more modern than I would have anticipated. I looked around as I closed the door behind me, making sure to lock the dead bolt; cause that would help in a world full of super people. I wondered through the place, finding the kitchen and paused in the living room; there was a hole in the wall, blood spots on the chair and a big ass blood stain on the carpet. I could hear Steve down the hall so I followed the sound of him pulling open drawers, finding him in the bedroom. It was simple but so was Steve, so it fit him. The bed was a king and that made me smile, he needed the extra room to spread out.

"Are you hungry?" I asked. I didn't really receive an answer because suddenly I was slammed up against the door to the bedroom and Steve's mouth was attacking me. I responded, opening my mouth for him as his hands moved clothing around to get to the skin of my waist. Ok so… my best friend was kissing me against his bedroom door; I was ok with that. His lips trailed down my jaw line moving to my neck and hitting that one spot that basically made me melt. My breath jerked as his tongue ran over my skin.

"Do I still only have to ask?" He growled against my neck.

"Let's be serious, you don't actually have to ask." I said, moaning slightly as he ground his hips against mine. He laughed slightly, his breath warm against my neck.

"Does this count as asking?"

"Yep." I said turning my head and reconnecting with his lips. Steve was my best friend, and I get that best friend shouldn't bang each other and what not, and we weren't really friends with benefits. Unless of course one considers the benefit of having just a smoking hot guy as your best friend. That benefit made it really easy for my body to respond to him tugging at the hem of my shirt. I lifted my arms for him and before the cloth was actually off his lips attached to my collar bone.

Both of us were breathing heavily, stripping clothes off the other whenever we could stand to break apart for a couple seconds. My hands trailed down his abs latching onto his fly. Now sleeping with Captain America is not something that one forgets, like ever, but I have to admit, I didn't remember him being quiet that big. Of course it was nothing but thrilling as I gently pulled the zipper down and popped the button of his jeans. He peeled my jeans off me and I kicked my shoes off, leaving us both in underwear. As he stood back up, trailing his fingers lightly over the outsides of my legs I shivered. His hands stopped at my thighs moving around the backs and lifting me off the floor as his mouth found mine again and he pushed me against the door. The doorknob was cold right next to my leg in complete contrast to the heated body length pressed against me. My fingers tangled into the hair at the nape of his neck and he growled; I smiled into the kiss. He still growled when he was happy apparently.

He pinned me against the wall as his hands trailed up by spine and he unsnapped my bra. I pulled back slightly shocked.

"You got that fast." He smiled slightly before kissing me again and pulling me away from the door. He stumbled over the pile of clothes a bit before he dropped me to the bed. He trailed kisses down my collar bone as he removed the thong from my hips, dropping it off the bed before stepping out of his boxers.

"I never should have asked you to come down here." He said, crawling up the bed so he was laying over me. That statement was confusing, and not usually one that something says right before sex dude. "I never should have put you in harm's way." He said, kissing me hard.

"Steve." I said making him pull back slightly. "I will always be there when you need me, for anything." I rand my hand through his hair, a little sad that it no longer fell into his eyes. As he breathed, I let my eyes travel the length of his body watching his chest move with the motion and actually seeing what I was dealing with. And that was impressive. Long, straight, thick, good god how did this man not have a girlfriend… right that whole trouble talking to women thing.

"Are you good?" He asked, allowing his thumb to roll over my left nipple.

"Just so good." I panted, arching my back as his hips thrust into me. This time, not having an army base full of men surrounding us, I let the scream out. How is it that he could hit that spot so perfectly the first damn time; oh yeah, because he was perfect.

This time, I didn't have to force Steve to let go, he just did. There was a desperation in his thrusts that almost brought tears to my eyes. I pulled him in close, allowing his face to bury into my shoulder as each thrust shoved into the bottom of my belly causing mini explosions behind my eye lids. Last time we both made a conscience effort to stay quiet, this time we didn't give a flying fuck if the neighbors complained; but let me tell you, almost dyeing sure made a hell of a difference. Then again the last guy I had had sex with was a bartender so… he didn't really match Steve.

Steve reached his climax during my first one this time, collapsing on top of me afterward. My hand trailed along his lower back, feeling the light sheen of sweat. When he tried to roll off I kept him there for second.

"I don't want to crush you."

"You aren't. It's actually kind of nice." I said. So he stayed there, for about two minutes before pulling out of me standing up. With his back turned I reached up to pull the messy pony tail out, letting my hair fall over my shoulders taking note of the slight sting in the right one, and just admire that view… no one should have an ass that perfect. He turned around, eyes skimming down my torso and he blushed. "Seriously? You blush now?"

"I…" He sat down on the bed as I sat up. "I didn't mean to take advantage…"

"Shut up." I said, watching him look at me. "It would only have been taking advantage if I were asleep."

"I just… You almost died." He said, reaching out and touching my knee.

"Not as close as you." He nodded. "We both needed it Steve. Sex can be that way sometimes." I said, running my hand down his shoulder. He yawned and then smiled slightly in embarrassment. "Get some sleep sweetie." He nodded again, crawling up and promptly falling asleep. He was more exhausted then he let anyone know. I went into the bathroom and moved my hair. The bite mark on my shoulder was actually bleeding. So his jaws were just as strong as the rest of him. Good thing I liked him.

I found one of Steve's shirts, a blue plaid button up and slipped my jeans on. I checked the door to make sure that it wouldn't lock behind me and crept into the hall, knocking lightly on the door in front of me. A thin blonde opened the door, a bandage wrapped around her right forearm.

"Hi." I said.

"Hello." She said, eyes darting around to look for something.

"Are you Kate? The nurse?" I asked. Her eyes refocused on me for a second.

"Um, yes?" I wasn't sure if I wanted someone who questioned if she was a nurse or not, but she was really the only option I had.

"I'm Crista. I'm a friend of Steve's." I said, motioning to his door.

"Oh right. Is he ok?" She asked.

"Yeah. I just have something that I need some help with. A nurse is preferable." I said slowly hoping she would realize that I actually needed a nurse.

"Oh sure. Come on in." She lead me through her small apartment to a bathroom, pulling out a small first aid kit. "What do you need help with?" I pulled the right shoulder down to reveal the bite mark. "Oh my god." She said.

"It's fine. He just lost a little control." I said.

"Steve did this?" She asked, a wide eyed look on her face.

"Yeah."

"It just doesn't seem like the nice guy that I know." She said slowly. I understood now.

"To be honest, he was kind of having an orgasm." I said. That got a different reaction that I expected as she cleaned the small area where Steve had broken skin. I hissed as the sting hit.

"Sorry." She said before placing the alcohol bottle on the counter. "Clean is always better."

"It's fine. I can't really complain as I can't reach it myself." The tension radiating off Kate was palpable as she covered the broken skin with a band aid.

"Crista, I have to confess something to you." She said, as I pulled the shoulder of Steve's shirt back up. "Steve asked me for coffee a couple days ago, and I didn't know about you." I stayed quiet, letting her finish whatever thought she was struggling to get out. "I flirted. And I am pretty sure he flirted back." I tried, really hard I swear, to hold back a laugh at the thought of Steve flirting; it didn't work. I snorted a giggle, covering it with my hand like that would make it go away.

"You don't know him very well do you?" I asked, a smile on my face and the smallest hint of laughter in my voice. Her head shook. "Steve probably didn't know you were flirting, he is kind of dumb that way, and he wouldn't have flirted if he had a girlfriend."

"But he did ask me out to coffee." She said. Holy crap, she thought I was his girlfriend.

"Good for him." I said, watching the shock come onto her face. "Steve and I aren't a thing. The sex is more like a stress release." That was the best explanation that I could come up with. The stress of being thrown through time, stress of both of us almost dying, the stress of one of our friends trying to kill him.

"Oh." She said, taken aback again. "I wouldn't have expected that from him." She said slowly.

"We're working that whole terrified of sex thing." I smiled. "Thanks for the patch up." I said, moving out of the bathroom and through the door into the hall.


	12. Chapter 12

There was a hole in the wall. A freaking hole. I was certain that I could blame Bucky for this, mostly because I was sure he was the one who did it, and he wasn't here to defend himself against the blame. I was currently taping cellophane over the hole as I didn't know what else to do. Isn't that what people did when their windows got broken… covered in them in cellophane?

"Crista!?" I turned, balancing on the chair on which I was standing and praying to god that blood was dried to see Steve burst out of his bedroom, frantically scanning the room and buck ass nude. Now I had taken my jeans off as they didn't really allow me to climb the back of a chair very well, but I still had Steve's shirt on; he hadn't even grabbed a shirt.

"What?" I asked, taking in the sweating form and increased breathing.

"You weren't there." He said. His eyes scanned the position in which I was standing and he frowned. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Trying to fix this whole… hole thing." I said sticking one more piece of tape against the wall before climbing down and moving toward him. "What's wrong?"

"I woke up and… you were gone." He said, reaching out and brushing my hair off my face.

"Sorry. You didn't sleep long." I glanced at the clock, seeing that he had only been out for about 45 minutes. "You should get some more." I said, pushing against his arm to steer him back to the bedroom.

"Bucky did that." He said, completely unmoving as he stared at the wall. "He shot Fury here." He glanced down at the rather large blood stain in the hall. "I couldn't even stop it. He shot him through the wall."

"You couldn't have stopped the shooting, or Bucky?" I asked, watching him run a hand over his face. He looked down at me briefly and then back up at my ghetto patch job before realizing that I was attempting to put pressure on him. He allowed me to direct him back to the bedroom where he sat on the edge of the bed.

"Either of them. I couldn't have stopped Fury getting shot." He looked so helpless. "I couldn't have stopped Bucky falling off that train." He put his face into his hands and rested his elbows on his knees. How does one help a Super Soldier who has the weight of the world on his ridiculously broad shoulders?

"That was 70 years ago Steve." He shook his head.

"If I had been able to save Bucky, none of this would have happened. Nat would never have been shot by him, Fury wouldn't have either, Hyrda probably wouldn't have become so strong…" I pushed his shoulders up and crawled into his lap, pulling him down onto my shoulder. His arms wrapped around my waist tugging me closer as his hands fisted into the back of shirt.

"Bucky is alive Steve. Whether he is present right now is a completely different story, but he is alive. You can't put this much pressure on yourself." He pulled his head up and looked at me.

"I'm Captain America." He answered, and while I knew that Steve believed in what he did and he wanted to do it, there was a sadness in his statement.

"Right. Not Atlas. I understand that your shoulders are ridiculously wide and strong…" A smile weary smile came to his face. "But you don't have to carry the world. Not every day."

"I never regretted it." He said, eyes looking at the wall but focusing on something long since passed.

"What?" I asked for clarification.

"Getting the Serum." I allowed my fingers to trail down his neck, spreading over the expanse of muscle on his shoulders. "I couldn't have done anything before." While it was common knowledge that Steve had quiet the growth spurt during the transformation and there were some pictures of him pre-Serum floating around there wasn't a lot of evidence of what he had been born too. "Everyone just looked right over me."

"Hey." I said. There wasn't a lot of conversation about pre-serum feelings and what he had lived the first 22 years of his life dealing with, but when it was talked about, I could always tell that he was far happier after the injection. "You do know that while that Serum made it possible to be Captain America, it isn't the reason you are." He snorted slightly, showing me the no humor with his face. "You know this body isn't what makes you amazing. Granted its fantastic…" That got some humor back. "But what makes you Captain America is the willingness to run into battle head first, alone into a pack of HYDRA agents with guns. The body just helps you get there."

"The little guy couldn't do that." He said, acknowledging slightly that what I was saying was true; it was Steve's heart and mind set that made him Captain America. But just to be crude I shifted my hips a little, feeling all his glorious nakedness under my legs.

"He does pretty good." I said, glancing down at my lap. "And he's not that little." Steve flat out laughed this time which is what I was going for; the erection that was starting was just a bonus. Usually the blush that decorated his cheeks made me laugh, but this time it was stronger than normal. He also wasn't making eye contact with me. "Ok, you just got shy on me. What's up?" He glanced at me briefly before blushing again, but allowed his hands to come to rest on my hips. "Dude, we literally had sex an hour ago and our junk has been touching for the last 15 minutes. What is going on Steve?" He looked at me then, the blush dropping from his cheeks slightly.

"I was just wondering… if maybe we could try something different?" I arched an eyebrow at him, a smirk pulling at my face.

"Different like what? Anal? I don't think I could handle that." That got the blush back and a wide eyed look from my Captain best friend.

"No." I giggled slightly at the confusion before putting a hand on his cheeks so he would look at me again.

"Different like what?" I asked again.

"Could we um… try slow?" He asked the most ridiculously hopeful look on his face.

"That would be different for us wouldn't it?" He smiled slightly at me. "But if we go slow, we do things right." I said. I knew that Steve hadn't been a virgin when I met him, but our two encounters had been so fast and furious and once the focus was on being quiet, I didn't really know the extent of his talent with anything else. I got a confused blink from him in response.

"Right how?"

"Foreplay baby." And there was that shyness.

"Foreplay has… never been my strong suit." He said, glancing at my lap that was hiding his ever increasing erection.

"Good thing you have a good tutor huh?" I said. "Plus, I've kissed you before I know what that tongue can do." He laughed slightly as if he wasn't sure if he should.

Steve was slightly skeptical about what Crista wanted him to do with his tongue, but he could guess. He had been awake in the 21st century long enough to know what oral sex was.

"You have to tell me if I am doing something wrong." He said quietly. Talking about sex was not exactly on their regular conversation list.

"When have I ever not told you when you were wrong?" He laughed slightly as he looked up at his best friend. She had always been beautiful and he had always thought so. Her brown hair hung around her head almost effortlessly in its curls. It was just dark enough to make the turquois of hers eyes pop but he was pretty sure that the unusual eye color would pop no matter what hair color she had. She had a dusting of freckles across her nose that wrinkled when she was being a brat. She reached slowly out and grabbed his wrist, bringing it up to cup her breast.

He glanced up at up face, seeing the intensity in her stare. She was also wearing his shirt, which only seemed to occur to him now.

"What do you want to do?" She asked. He felt the weight of her in his hand and keeping his strength in check, squeezed slightly. He watched her bite her lower lip as her eyes closed slightly. Her thin pale hands came up and popped the top button of his shirt and allowed his hand to slip through palming her breast flesh to flesh. It was some of the softest flesh he could remember feeling against his calloused palms.

"Is this ok?" He asked quietly. She opened the rest of his shirt and let it hang open, exposing a thin sliver of skin down her torso. Steve watched as her breath hitched; he could feel it in the movement of her breast in his hand. Then he was stuck. Crista's eyes locked with his and she smiled, sticking her thumb in her mouth. He felt the confused look on his and before she could say anything she rolled her wet thumb over his nipple. A shot streaked down his spine and he jerked, looking at the wicked look on his best friends face. "Do they do that for you too?" He asked.

She nodded. "Nipples are a fabulous invention." His erection was almost painful as it pressed against the backs of her thighs.

He shifted, laying her on her back on the bed. With his weight on his elbows, Steve slowly pulled the shirt open further, revealing Crista's own toned torso. Honestly, Steve did not mind that he didn't have to go to the gym like Crista did. But it certainly gave great results. Crista's head lulled back against the bed and her eyebrow cocked up at him; a challenge. Steve eyed both mounds of hers, then settled on the right one dipping his head down and running the top of his tongue over the hard pebbled lump. Crista's breath hitched again and she jerked beneath him.

Her lip was pulled between her teeth again as his head moved back down, pulling the nipple into his mouth. Her fingers tangled into his hair, pressing against his head as he shifted to allow the other hand to come up to the left one.

"Told you that tongue was magic." She said breathlessly as he sucked. He felt the slight burn of the blush across his cheeks as he moved over to the other one, his right hand shifting down between her legs. He knew the basics of the female anatomy, and he remembered how Crista had reacted when his fingers where in her 75 years before. "You can just rub down there, that works." She said, still out of breath. He had to admit, getting Crista almost speechless was something he never thought he could do.

His thumb slid down her center and she screamed a little, arching her hips into his hand. He released her nipple and looked up to her face. She was flushed, breathing heavily, her lip back between her teeth and her eyes were closed. Steve watched fascinated as he slipped a finger into her, watching her chest heave under with her breaths. If he didn't know any better he would say she was in pain, but the way her hips moved again he knew she wasn't.

"Can I ask you something?" The frustrated huff out of her mouth made him smile. Granted, his erection was begging for contact, any contact at this point so he understood her frustration.

"Only if you do it fast." She said, annoyed turquois eyes opening to meet his. He bent the finger in her and watched her jerked, the annoyance slipping away in a moan.

"Are all women this ready all the time?" She was practically dripping down his arm. "And what do I do if they aren't?" She took a deep steadying breath and looked down her body at him.

"Not all women are, but all you have to do is take your shirt off. That will get them going." He yanked his finger out frustrated at her answer. "Hey!" She whined in protest. One look at his face and she knew her answer wasn't good enough, he could see it in her eyes. "Can we talk about ways to please other women when I am not mostly naked in your bed and want your penis?" He laughed, watching the skin of her hip quiver as his breath hit it. She sat up, shoving against his shoulder so he was sitting against the head board.

"There are other things you can do. Or things that they can do. Foreplay isn't always about the woman; just mostly." She said with her smirk. Steve was confused slightly as she licked her palm, eyes locked on his face. When she took his aching erection in hand he jerked and growled in the back of his throat. "I love it when I make you growl." She said, licking her lips as her eyes skimming down his torso.

Before he could stop her, her mouth was around him slowly taking his length in until he hit the back of her throat. That was a sensation that he couldn't explain; but he could settle on fabulous. She came back up and he heard her swallow before she dropped her head back down and this time, he didn't hit her throat, he went down it.

"Crista." He said, pulling her off him. "Are you trying to kill yourself?" Steve Rogers was never really cocky unless of course he was on a mission. But he also had no misunderstandings to what the serum did to "the little guy" as Crista had deemed him. His best friend laughed slightly.

"No I'm not. It's called deep throating. Get used to it, because if anyone else wants to suck you off they will have to deep throat." He frowned at the vulgar turn of phrase, but somehow it also turned him on more. As she moved her head back down he stopped her.

"You don't have to. I just want in." He said, watching her eyes darken in lust. He was going to lay her back again, but she crawled up his legs and settled herself over his hips.

"There are also different positions to do this in." She said, running her nose along his. He moved his chin, pressing his lips to hers causing her mouth open in response. She reached between their bodies, grabbed him once again and directed him into the wonderful tightness that is a woman's body.

Her nails dug into his shoulders as she pressed back, breath hitching again and the pained look back.

"You ok?" He asked, his hands coming to stay her hips.

"Yeah." She breathed, opening her eyes. "You're just big." She said with a smile, reminding him of their shared night in a frozen tent so many decades before. He felt her stretching out, her walls expanding in order to accommodate his size and with a release of breath she sat back further, allowing the moan to escape her lips.

Sex really was a wonderful thing. It could get one so caught up in the moment that everything didn't matter. It was the only time he and his best friend ever had sex; when something outside of themselves needed to be forgotten. He could feel every pulse of Crista's heart through their connection. He felt every breath escape her, heard every noise she made. The feeling of her hands in his hair made him thrust up into her as she came back down every time. The feeling of her breath tickling his neck as her head buried into his shoulder during her first orgasm, the pulsing and squeezing of her walls around me making him growl. He kissed her neck, feeling the pulse point against his lips as he pulled her closer to him; both of their chests moving against each other.

After her second orgasm she pulled back, eyes hazy and she looked at him. He gently pulled her in to him, kissing her as he thrust up into her again causing her to moan into his mouth. Her third orgasm was too much for him and the contractions pulled an orgasm from him. Crista's head was arched back and Steve's pressed against the headboard, keeping a grip around her upper back as Crista's hands pressed into his chest.

Slowly, she opened her hazy turquois eyes. They locked with his blue ones and he saw the same amount of exhaustion as he felt. She smiled slowly and rolled over him, flopping down on top of the covers. Her chest was still rising and falling rapidly but she looked content. So was he. Boneless. Sated. Happy. He grabbed a tissue from the box next to his bed and cleaned himself up, grabbing another to do the same to Crista. She shifted under his hand slightly and frowned.

"You don't have to do that every time." She said, watching as he tossed the tissues into the trash. He shrugged in response and let Crista pull him down next to her. She shifted onto her side, her head on his shoulder and promptly fell asleep. Steve pulled the throw blanket up, tucked it around both of them, and followed his friend into slumber.


	13. Chapter 13

When Steve awoke the next morning Crista was in the shower. Part of him, the lower part, thought about joining her but it seemed too much of a relationship type move to pull. He stretched in his bed listening to his back crack and rolled into a sitting position. He breathed in through his nose and checked his phone. Natasha had made it home and something weird from Fury about his funeral. He needed a break so he put his phone back down and got dressed noticing the shirt Crista had been wearing was folded on the pillow she had used.

He heard the shower turn off and decided to let her get dressed in private too. He walked through his apartment and leaned against the wall has he had done just four days before. He smiled to himself as he looked at the cellophane on his wall. S.H.E.I.L.D probably wasn't getting their deposit back. Then again, they probably owned the building so he figured the deposit wasn't that big of a deal.

Steve stiffened as there was a knock on the door. His shield was somewhere in the Potomac last he saw it, so he snuck down the hall. Crista was in the small kitchen as he quietly opened the hall closet, grabbing his stealth shield. At least HYDRA hadn't taken it back. He crept back up to the door, peering through the peep hole.

"Open up Cap." Steve's eyes rolled and he dropped the shield. He cracked the door open and looked down, annoyed. "No happy to see you? No thanks for stopping by? Nice Rogers." Tony shoved his way past him and stood in the hallway with his arms folded across his chest.

"Hello Tony. It's good to see you. What do you want?" He asked, knowing full well that Crista was in the kitchen and he that was a conversation he didn't want to have with Tony Stark.

"I just came down to see if you were ok. Pepper was worried." He added off handily. "I hear Romanoff is still alive."

"Natasha is fine. She is healing." He said. Natasha had texted him at some point during the night but he was too busy to answer.

"You coming back to New York?"

"I will think about it." Steve said, trying to shove his team mate back out the door.

"What are you so jumpy about?"

"Steve where is the coffee?" Crista asked coming down the hall and stopping. Steve sighed, so much for Tony staying in the dark. Crista looked slowly between Tony, who was looking over the top of his glasses at her, and then at Steve.

"This is Tony. Tony this is Crista." He said, running a hand through his hair.

"Crista. It's nice to meet you." Tony said, removing his glasses and allowing his eyes to scan Crista's form.

"Hi." She said awkwardly. Steve allowed his eyes to scan her noticing his shirt was back on her. At least she had the sense to put her own pants back on as opposed to the no pants she was wearing the night before.

"Tony was just leaving." Steve said, trying to make a point, but he kind of knew that it wasn't going to happen.

"No I wasn't."

"Do you want coffee?" Crista asked Tony, eyes wide.

"I would love some." Tony said before Steve could get the word "no" out.

"Great. Steve where is the coffee?" Crista asked again, pulling the conversation full circle. Steve smiled at her and begrudgingly shut the door. Tony shot him an impressed look before following Crista into the kitchen. Steve walked in, maneuvering around Tony to reach above the refrigerator. "What normal human could find that there?" Crista said, snatching the bag from him.

"Well, Cap is really tall." Tony said.

"I have a tendency to make really strong coffee… is that ok or do you not want it to burn through your stomach lining?" Crista asked as she grabbed a coffee filter.

"Two scoops Crista." Steve said almost rolling his eyes. They had had this conversation too many times to count, including once he moved to D.C. and Crista felt it necessary to remind him how to make coffee over the phone. Crista's eyes actually did roll as she filled the coffee pot.

"So…" Tony started, "how are you feeling Steve?" Steve turned to stare at him; his best friend didn't remember him and had been trying to kill him for the last three days, he had almost gotten his other best friend killed, Natasha had been shot, his place of employment had been destroyed and Tony was asking how he was? "You seem a bit a tense for someone who got laid last night." Before Steve could blush, he heard Crista snort with laughter.

"Blushing Captain?" She said, turning around. Crista loved it when he blushed.

"Can we talk about something else?" Steve asked, moving around Crista to get three mugs out of the cabinet.

"No." They both said together. He glared down at Crista who smiled, but there was an intimacy in her eyes when she did so that let him know she wasn't making fun of him like Tony was.

"So what is it like to sleep with Captain America?" Tony asked, causing Steve's blush to come full on again. "Or be his girlfriend. Pepper is always terrified for me, do you feel the same?"

Steve's glare shifted up to Tony attempting to get the rapid fire questions to come to an end. Crista slowly turned to face him with the pot in her hand. Steve removed it from her hand and turned to the sink to fill it.

"Those are interesting questions. I wouldn't know what it is like to sleep with Captain America, I have only ever slept with Steve Rogers, and I'm not his girlfriend but I do worry." Crista said all in one breath. Steve almost wished she had just said that she was his girlfriend.

"Cap had a one night stand?" Tony asked loudly, another impressed smile pulling at his face.

"Oh yeah, a couple of 'em." Crista said smirking at him over her shoulder when he glared slightly at her.

"Drop it Tony. What are you really here for?" Steve asked, handing the pot back to Crista.

"Now I am here for this." Steve sighed again. "How many one night stands have you had now Capsicle?"

"Two." He answered, finally giving in. There was only so much energy he could put into defying Tony.

"Two. Hm." The billionaire reached up to stroke his beard briefly. "Two different women have had sex with you." Crista snorted and Steve's blush returned. A few nights before he had moved to D.C. Crista had decided to celebrate by getting rather drunk, and insisting on pulling all of the women he had slept with out of him. Granted, including Crista it was only four but he still didn't like to talk about it. What he had done with those other three was between him and them. And they were all dead now, which only added fuel to Crista's fire so that he remembered them with a positive thought.

"Wrong. More than two. He wasn't a virgin when I met him." Crista said, folding her arms over her chest. Tony's brown eyes locked with Crista's turquois ones and the two had a stare down for a while.

"I believe that you and I are going to have to get to know each other better Crista." Tony said, a smile pulling at his lips. Steve sighed.

"Great. Please don't do it now. Crista needs to rest." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. He didn't miss the wince and the jerk but he decided to ignore it until Tony left.

"Aw, did you wear her out?" Tony asked.

"I am sure that we will talk about it later." Steve said.

"Any way, I was wondering if you were heading back to New York." Tony said, finally coming to the meaning of his visit as Crista ducked out from under his hand. He glanced at her as she finished the coffee preparation and switched the brewer to on.

"Would that be easier?" He said.

"Well, with this whole HYDRA thing and them having Loki's scepter." Steve's full attention snapped to Tony. He was not under the impression that he had taken out the only HYDRA regime, but them having Loki's scepter was completely new information. "I figured having the team around would be helpful." Steve nodded.

"I can start looking. I don't want to think about that scepter in HYRDA's hands."

"So you are coming back to New York?" Crista asked, turning around with hope in her eyes.

"Seems like it." He said.

"Great. While you start looking you can stay at the tower."

"The Stark Tower?" Crista asked, randomly jumping into the conversation when something interested her.

"People have started calling it the Avengers Tower, so you know, we should all be there." Tony sniffed, glancing at the coffee. "You can keep that. I have a plane to catch. Call me when you need movers." He threw over his shoulder as he wooshed out the door.

I focused on the coffee as I heard the door close.

"What happen to your shoulder?" So much for ignoring that. Steve's hand had taken me by surprise and the residual sting was unexpected. Leave it to my best friend to not miss the wince.

"It's fine." I felt his looming presence behind me.

"That is not what I asked." He said quietly. Slowly, his fingers came up in front of her and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. Knowing that he was going to get the bottom of whatever he felt was important so I didn't try to fight him as he pulled the right shoulder of the shirt down. "Crista!" I spun to face him, leaving his hand still hovered in midair.

"First of all… I am fine. Secondly, it was not your fault. Third… who wanted to be bitten by Captain America?" I asked. However that blasted self-loathing look didn't leave his face. 75 years ago I tried to get that look on his face because I thought it was funny. Now it was heartbreaking.

"I just keep hurting you."

"No!" I said punching him in the shoulder as hard as I could muster, which only resulted in a sore hand as Steve didn't even flinch. "I told you, I don't mind. You can't control yourself mid-orgasm." He finally moved, running a hand through his hair. He spun me back around and gently pulled the bandage away.

"Oh god." Now I hadn't really seen the bruise but I could imagine. Like I had said, Steve's jaws were just as strong as the rest of him. His lips brushed my shoulder lightly. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize." I said. "I've had worse." I poured a cup of coffee, shrugged my shoulder to bring the shirt back into place and handed him the coffee. "When are you planning on getting packed?"

Steve heaved a sigh blinked down the coffee in his hands.

"Probably today. If HYDRA has Loki's scepter, we are going to need to get started fast." Steve still looked tired and I felt bad for him. He had literally just survived probably the worst mission of his life and he was barely allowed to have any down time apparently.

"Maybe you should take Tony up on those movers. Maybe he could have someone pack for you too." Steve smiled slightly. "I mean I would help, but I have this shoulder injury." His eyes rolled as I laughed at him watching his shoulders relax.

"I want to make sure that you get back to New York safely." He said, his Captain America voice slipping into his tone.

"Sure." I said as Steve's phone went off. He took the call in the hallway as I started scrambling some eggs for breakfast. Apparently it was Natasha. I heard something about a cemetery and a hearing but I decided it wasn't worth my time. I didn't think it matter to me.

I sighed to myself wondering if Bucky was going to call. Wondering how long it would take for my friend to fight through the Soldier in control. I glanced toward the door, wondering how Steve was going to be able to fight through it. I hoped the fight he was facing was going to be enough to take his mind of his wayward buddy. I also hoped that he was taking friends with him. Because seriously, he is facing HYDRA so he called me when how many of the Avenger's does he have on speed dial? Thank god for Natasha.

Well, the Avengers had one hell of a fight in front of them.


	14. Chapter 14

"We just did." Steve said in response to Sam's question. "But I will probably need you to take over this search." Both men looked up to see that Natasha had disappeared among the headstones.

"Any particular reason?" Sam asked.

"Apparently HYDRA is still going strong. Tony has taken it upon himself to take them out."

"What does that have to do with me doing this alone?"

"Let me rephrase, Tony has taken it upon the Avengers to out HYRDA. They have a very powerful weapon that we need to get back to a God friend of mine." Steve briefly wondered if there was ever going to a time in his life where HYDRA wasn't ruining it. His best friend was gone yet still present; Crista was currently packing up his apartment; Tony was still texting him, currently to tell him Maria Hill was now working for him; SHIELD's secrets were unleashed but he had a feeling that the organization wasn't gone. He glanced up to the sky, wondering if Thor was even aware that Loki's scepter was still on this planet.

"Like Thor?" Sam asked. Steve quirked an eyebrow at him and Sam smiled. "Come on, I've seen the footage of New York."

"I just can't understand how the scepter slipped past us." Then a gut wrenching thought hit Steve; the scepter hadn't slipped past them. Natasha had the scepter when they cuffed Loki, she probably gave it over to SHIELD. Which would explain how HYDRA had it now. "Actually I can."

"I'll take this over. But he's probably in the wind. Russian spies are apparently very good at that." Same said, his eyes scanning the cemetery one more time for Natasha. "Maybe Crista can help." Steve knew that Sam meant to help but Steve really didn't want Crista anywhere near this world anymore.

"I'd rather leave her out of this." He said turning to head back to the car. Sam nodded briefly as he followed Steve out of the cemetery.

"So, you are going back to New York?"

"Looks like it." Steve said. He hoped that there would be at least a week that he could use to recovery. But he doubted it.

Steve was headed back home. New York, fighting HYDRA, back to the Avengers, whatever the word meant. Brooklyn wasn't exactly what he knew anymore so maybe home was the team. Whatever it was, he was going back.

**AN: Hey everyone! I told you the story had been finished. I am so honored by so many people following this. Crista will be back, and Age of Ultron is next, it will be much shorter but Crista's adventures will continue!**


	15. News!

Hello every one who is following or has favorited and therefore are my favorites of the human race! I have almost completed and therefore started posting the sequel to Crista's story. It's called "Kiss Me Once Again." Let me know what you think!

Also, welcome to Kaderos, Crazyhyper09, and Gabriel!


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